Mercedes-Benz reserve driver Esteban Ocon will return to a race seat with Renault next year, and plan to continue the record start to his Formula 1 career.

The Frenchman finished the first 27 races of his career, a feat unmatched in F1’s 69-year history, and raced for three teams over his two-and-a-half seasons and half-century of races. His two best finishes came in 2017, at the Spanish and Mexican Grands Prix, where he met the chequered flag in fifth.

Although he has never led, he did spend 13 laps of 2017 in the top three, and was a foot or two away from briefly holding first place in the 2018 Belgian GP at the end of the Kemmel Straight in the first race for the Racing Point team.

He started that race from third place, his joint highest qualifying position alongside the 2017 Italian GP.

In 2017, Ocon scored points 18 times across the season, a tally only been beaten by six other drivers - all of whom were in grand prix winning cars.

Ocon has never raced for Renault, but drove in free practice for the manufacturer four times in 2016, and once in 2014 when the team was called Lotus.