Alpine driver Esteban Ocon has said that his battle from the back of the field to 8th place in Miami felt like a victory.

The French driver certainly had a fight on his hands to earn points on Sunday afternoon, with him starting P18 after being unable to take part in qualifying thanks to a nasty crash in practice that caused damage to his car that his team just couldn't repair in time.

However, on Sunday's grid he was promoted two places from P20 thanks to issues that both Aston Martin cars were experiencing, and over the course of the Miami GP he managed to climb a further 10 places, picking his way through a number of incidents that happened in front of him.

Indeed, it was very much a prime example of keeping your nose clean and accruing points from that for Ocon and he said he felt as though the P8 finish was like a victory all things considered:

"I am delighted, I think it is a victory for us today,” he said when asked about his charge by Autosport.

“There was clearly a mountain to climb for all of us, but I think from the strategy to the radio calls, the tyre management, everything was perfect today. And to end up in the points being 50% physically as well, for me it's like a win.

“It is a different challenge for sure, it can go wrong, it can go right. Today it went right. But it's not very enjoyable as I said to race being 50% physically. It's as hard as Singapore here in terms of humidity and heat."

MIAMI, FLORIDA - MAY 06: Esteban Ocon of France driving the (31) Alpine F1 A522 Renault on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at the Miami International Autodrome on May 06, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

“We knew what we had to do.

"We wanted to go very long with the hards, we wanted to get this tyre to last long, so I was managing quite a bit at the start.

"It was harder than expected, I thought the tyre was never going to switch on to be fair, but it did, so that was good.

“We were not very fast at the start, and then the pace increased slowly, slowly, and we became very quick in comparison to the other cars.”

A great result for Ocon, who continues to show that he is a very talented driver at the wheel of the A522.

He'll be hoping for more points in Spain up next, then, but may well be aiming to start a little higher on the grid!

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