Alpine: Ocon's final pit stop triggered hopes of win

Alpine sporting director Alan Permane says the team's hopes of winning the Hungarian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon only emerged after the Frenchman's final pit stop.

Ocon made the most of the chaos that unfolded at the start of the eventful race, steering clear of the mess at the first corner and then assuming the lead after Lewis Hamilton's forced pit stop after the re-start.

However, with Sebastian Vettel shadowing Ocon's every move in the first half of the race, Alpine's strategists were hard at work to determine the right time to pit their driver.

But Ocon's strong pace at the end of his first stint allowed the Frenchman to increase his lead over his Aston Martin rival who attempted to undercut the Alpine by pitting one lap earlier.

The ploy didn't work however as Ocon held his own ahead of Vettel after his pit stop and switch to the hard tyre.

"I’m not sure we started to really focus on that side of it [winning] until after the pit stop," explained Permane.

"The first part of the race was making sure we came out on the second set of tyres in the lead.

"From there, then the win was on and what was really beautiful was when we let him go, when we told him now you have to drive flat out, he pulled out two and half… I don’t know what it was, 2.8 seconds or something on Sebastian.

"It enabled us to just react to Sebastian so we didn’t have to do anything until he pitted, we pitted a lap after him and came out in front of him."

• Read also - Prost: Ocon win gives 'much necessary' boost to Alpine morale

Ocon had undoubtedly pulled out all the stops to protect his lead, but Lewis Hamilton's pace and progress through the field was a potential risk for the Frenchman.

Fortunately, Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso was the "crucial" roadblock Ocon needed to delay Hamilton's charge according to Permane.

"If you pit first, you expose yourself to Safety Cars and all sorts of things, nastiness and that was – there were two key things, that and Fernando with Lewis, added the Alpine sporting boss.

"[It was] undoubtedly crucial. It was 11 laps I believe, if he’d got past him on the first lap like he got past Carlos on the first time past, I’m sure Lewis would have been there.

"I think what we would have done if then just drop back a little bit, give Seb the DRS and use that to protect a little but I don’t know if we would have held him off.

"Maybe. Esteban, don’t forget he [was] one of the last people [to pit], so he had very fresh tyres. He was in control in that last stint."

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