Ocon thanks Alpine for keeping trust in him after maiden F1 win in Hungary

Ocon moved up to second after a chaotic start which saw five cars retire on the opening lap.

The Frenchman inherited the lead after Lewis Hamilton decided not to pit before the second standing start after the red flag, whereas the rest of the field did.

Ocon resisted intense pressure from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel for the 70-lap race to take his first-ever grand prix victory.

“What a moment, what a moment,”Ocon said. “It feels so good. It’s the first victory obviously since the Renault group came back to Formula 1. We had some difficult moments this season and we overcame them together with the team, came back to a fantastic pace in Silverstone.

“What can I say? I mean, it’s fantastic. You know, congrats to Fernando as well, because I think the win is also thanks to him, with the fights that he did. So yeah. I mean his teamwork, all that and I think it’s been a fantastic day.”

After a strong start to the year with four points finishes in five, Ocon’s form dipped with five consecutive races outside of the points.

As a result, Alpine gave him a new chassis to help him find his form again.

Ocon returned to the points at Silverstone and then followed it in Hungary with the Enstone-based team’s first win since 2013.

“Just a big thank you for the trust that everyone is putting into me,” Ocon added. “In difficult moments when you are out in Q1, when you are P17 you don’t know where you are exactly and the team kept a big trust. We are back where we belong so that’s fantastic. Sebastian was mega quick the whole race, put me under big pressure. We managed to hold him off so that was a great effort.”