Pierre Gasly repeated Ocon’s performance at the Principality, finishing fourth on a day when others failed to get it right, although he was later held back by Carlos Sainz ) and Max Verstappen were relegated six places.

Ocon, meanwhile, had a less-than-perfect lap in Q3 but was still seventh ahead of Sunday’s grid thanks to a team-mate’s penalty.

“It’s fantastic,” Ocon said when asked by Autosport about the car being fourth fastest again.

“If you had told me two games ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“Credit to Viry and Enstone for the work they’ve done, as those upgrades we’ve brought to them are clearly working.

“It’s a moment of confirmation after Monaco, the car is obviously more dynamic, so we’re happy.”

Ocon admitted he didn’t have the best overtake on the final lap, which contributed to his lack of Gasly.

“We optimized very well in all qualifying sessions, except for my performance in Q3,” he explained.

“Probably the tires weren’t as good at the start of the lap as all the other runs we maxed out, and in the rear I didn’t have that good grip.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team

Photography: Erik Junius

“It was a bit like Fernando (Alonso), I lost the rear entry to Turn 10, I went a little wide and I lost a lot of lap time there. So there was definitely more possibility today, but it was A great place to start.

“I was really happy today because it was so close and it meant that if we had good lap times we could be there, which is fantastic.

“I hope F1 will stay like this for a long time, and P1 will do likewise.”

Before his penalty was confirmed, Gasly responded to Ocon’s statement about the state of the team.

“I’m very happy for the team because it’s the best qualifying of the season,” he said.

“It’s more important than the result itself. I’m happy with the evolution we’ve shown over the past few weekends.

“It’s early in the season and I’m getting to know the team every weekend. They’re getting to know myself, you know, it’s about putting things together. I really feel like every weekend, we’re taking a step forward. .

“It was a really strong lap. I always look further. When I see Carlos coming in second with less than 10th, it really shows that we are on the gear we have There is potential, and the upgrades are working.

“Overall, there are a lot of positives in this qualifying session.”