Force India's F1 Mexican GP Q2 tactics didn't feel great - Ocon

With Pirelli's fastest hypersoft tyre proving fragile in Mexico, Force India felt it better to avoid being forced to start on it so went for the harder compounds in qualifying.

Although the team did not make it into Q3 because of the tactic, Ocon still thinks it was the right thing to do after he ended up in 11th spot with a free choice of compound for the race.

"It is not great I would say to be sacrificing one session and then thinking about the race on Saturday," said Ocon, when asked by Autosport about how it felt.

"It is not great but if it can help us get a great result I am totally down [with it]."

Ocon said the expected high degradation from the hypersoft meant there was little incentive in trying to use it in Q2 and pushing for Q3 if it then meant being stuck on the fragile rubber at the start.

"P11 was our target, minimum target to get," said Ocon. "That is what we are having and that is great.

"If we went into Q3, then being able to use the hypersofts, we could have challenged the Renaults [which start on row four], so it is a shame.

"We had the pace clearly to be in Q3 if we used the hypersoft, but I hope this is going to help us for the strategy. And for the hypersoft runners I think it is going to have a big impact in the race."

Ocon had only used the hypersoft tyre before qualifying, so his laps in Q2 - running first the supersoft and then the ultrasoft - were his first on another compound this weekend.

Despite feeling that Force India has made the right strategy call, he accepted that any change of weather could leave the team looking silly for sacrificing grid positions.

"If it rains in the night it will reset [the track] definitely and it will be better for us because there will be more deg for the hypersoft," he said. "But if it rains in the race we messed up the strategy!"