“Actually, the signs were there already just before the shutdown and just after with a little bit of momentum. Zandvoort, my first race, they made me look good getting a point there. Then we had a tricky couple of races which sort of showed the true picture of some of our limitations in the team with the car and our performance.
“I think Austin with an upgrade showed we’ve got a bit of pace there, and that was a bit of a hard one because we left empty-handed after a good qualifying. But these last couple of events, it’s been really nice to show we have got some pace.
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“We were all a little bit wounded after Baku, when a competitor [Williams] got quite a few points, and credit to them and the job they’re doing, but it’s nice today to have our own strong result as well.”
Prior to that final restart, Ocon looked to be holding a decent gap to Verstappen in P1 – but could the Frenchman have held on and won the race?
“I was slightly disappointed when Max breezed past, I’m not going to lie!” Oakes conceded. “People will say you need a reality check, but obviously you do this job because you want to win. You don’t turn up because you don’t want to [win]. Nobody likes walking to the back of the grid.
“These past few weekends, we’re moving forward. But I think in the race today, there were moments where I thought, ‘Okay, we can do this,’ but you have to also say Max is phenomenal. In those conditions, he is another level.
