Martin Brundle praises “under-the-radar” F1 star after “outstanding” Monaco GP drive

Legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle has lauded Esteban Ocon for his “outstanding” performance at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Ocon finished seventh in Monaco on Sunday, giving Haas their best-ever result in the principality.

The Frenchman has delivered a number of impressive performances in Monaco over the years, finishing third for Alpine in 2023.

Ocon produced another impressive lap to make it into Q3, resulting in jubilant celebrations over team radio.

Even without the help of teammate Ollie Bearman, who started from the back of the grid due to a penalty for a red flag infringement, Ocon came home in seventh, just behind Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar.

Ocon has now scored 20 of Haas’ 26 points in F1 2025, putting them sixth in the constructors’ standings.

In his post-race column for Sky Sports, Brundle noted Ocon’s “under-the-radar” display.

“When we look at the results after all the hype and discussion pre-race about the two-stop rule, pretty much nothing changed,” Brundle wrote.

“Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, penalised on the grid, passed Isack Hadjar’s impressively-driven Racing Bull in the pit stop phase.

“Sadly, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a car failure and retired. Both of those things would have happened anyway. Along with Racing Bulls’ Hadjar and Liam Lawson in sixth and eighth, and Williams’ Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in ninth and 10th, another impressive performance was Esteban Ocon who finished an outstanding if under-the-radar seventh in his Haas, without any help from a teammate roadblock.”

Ocon pleased Haas “didn’t put a foot wrong”

While it’s not been completely plain-sailing for Ocon following his switch from Alpine to Haas, the Frenchman has delivered a number of big results for the American outfit in 2025.

Ocon finished fifth in China, moving up a couple of places after the two Ferraris were disqualified for technical infringements.

He also finished eighth in Bahrain.

Ocon put together a faultless weekend in Monaco to secure seventh.

“I think it’s been a great weekend all around,” Ocon said after the race in Monaco. “We really didn’t put a foot wrong from Qualifying to the race.

“We put everything together when it mattered, so really happy for that. It’s six points for the team which is a big thing, so I’m really satisfied with this.

“We did make a lot of progress all the way to Qualifying. This is super positive and we need to take that into account and really look into how we can get more consistency out of the other weekends.”