Ocon: I do not know if I'm in a dream or if it's a reality!

It was a chaotic weekend at Interlagos with the weather playing a big role in how the weekend panned out, and in a qualifying - postponed from Saturday till Sunday - that saw many drivers crash or flop, Ocon did well to qualify fourth fastest.

From there on, the Frenchman kept his head down and stayed out of trouble while Alpine executed a faultless strategy, taking their time before pitting and benefitting from the Red flag that came out after Franco Colapinto crashed his Williams under the Safety Car in treacherous conditions, hence getting a free pitstop.

Ocon managed to keep Verstappen at bay after the first restart, but could not repeat that feat when the second Safety Car period was concluded and that was caused by Carlos Sainz crashing.

In the end, Ocon finished second and was over the moon with that result. He said in Alpine's race report: "I'm very happy this afternoon and I really do not know if I'm in a dream or if it's a reality! I'm so proud of the entire team. We scored an amazing number of points in one race weekend.

"Clearly after yesterday such a performance seemed impossible but when the conditions are difficult, we have seen that we can fight," the French Formula 1 driver added referring to his Sprint race which he finished 13th.

"We had a very good qualifying session earlier this morning, which set us up well for the race. When I was at the front of the race, I believed in it for a little while but Max [Verstappen] was faster than us on the last stint so we can have no regrets in the end result because that was definitely the most we could achieve.

"It proves again that we can do it and we just have to keep working hard for the final three races. I'm also super happy to share this podium with Pierre [Gasly]. I thought about it on the last lap of the race that it was going to be incredible to share a podium together, like in the good old days when we started karting in similar conditions.

"This podium will remain in my memory forever and I'm just so pleased for the entire team," Ocon concluded.

Alpine had the perfect race in Sao Paulo as Pierre Gasly took the final podium step behind his teammate.