Ocon sets his Sunday sights on Hulkenberg and Renault

Esteban Ocon put in another solid effort Saturday afternoon that delivered a P8 slot on the Canadian Grand Prix grid, but the Force India driver reckons he's in for a tight battle with his Renault counter-parts.

The Frenchman improved throughout each segment of the all-important afternoon session with a clean and tidy performance that put him with a tenth of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg.

Both the German and team mate Carlos Sainz recovered from a troubled Friday to put themselves in the top ten mix, along with Force India's chargers.

"I was very impressed by how quick they were today to be honest," said Ocon.

"They didn't have that pace yesterday and they came back quite a lot. Today, they were a bit ahead of us, one tenth, I still qualified ahead of Carlos.

"It's going to be our target tomorrow, to beat them in the race."

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Ocon underlines his team's productive work and consistent progress since the Canadian GP weekend got underway, and which bodes well for Sunday's 70-lap race.

"I had a fantastic feeling with the car and we’ve been getting better with each session," he said.

"The work last night and in final practice really paid off and we took big steps forward in the build-up to qualifying.

"So I have to say a big ‘thank you’ to the team because we are really making good progress with this car.

"I think there is all to play for tomorrow: we are often stronger with race pace so the job tomorrow is to try and get ahead of Hulkenberg and bring home some big points."

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