How Hakkinen’s famous overtake on Schumacher was repeated by Ocon at Spa

Ocon enjoyed a strong recovery from 16th on the grid to finish seventh behind teammate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The Frenchman’s double overtake on Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly drew comparisons from Hakkinen’s legendary manoeuvre on Schumacher, using lapped backmarker Ricardo Zonta as a dummy.

In similar fashion, Vettel was in the middle of the Kemmel Straight as Ocon and Gasly duelled for position.

Ocon got past both of them into Les Combes with a sensational overtake.

“At the time, I thought ‘oh no, Seb didn’t get the DRS there so Gasly will have it basically’,” Ocon told Sky on Sunday.

“And I thought ‘okay, there is an opportunity again there’.

“So going on the left of Seb, he has been very fair, left me the space, and then fresher tyres on Gasly so I could go around the outside. So thank you guys!”

Coincidentally, Ocon revealed that he had spoken to the Finnish legend before the race at Spa.

“He came to speak to me, Mika, just before the race,” Ocon added. “It’s a good coincidence, just before, to wish me luck.”

Ocon completed another double overtake earlier in the race, this time on Nicolas Latifi and Daniel Ricciardo.

Reflecting on that battle, he explained: Well, kind of that, and almost didn’t happen well, because when I went on the outside of Nicholas as well we almost touched.

“At the time I thought ‘I’m going to have my clip here’ and then they blocked each other, basically, so I’m pushing the overtake button – you are using the battery to deploy until the braking zone.

“It’s critical the energy here and you are trying to get the maximum out of the race, but you can get in trouble basically if you use too much.”

Alpine are now 20 points clear of McLaren in the race for fourth in the constructors’ championship.