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Vettel says Bottas’ bad start hurt his Qatar race; happy with recovery

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, Lance Stroll

Action, Losail International Circuit, GP2120a, F1, GP, Qatar Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21, leads George Russell, Williams FW43B

Sebastian Vettel felt undone after a bad start in F1 Qatar GP as he thought potential was there like Lance Stroll to score more points.

Aston Marin’s Vettel was not satisfied with his results at F1 Qatar GP after he felt he had the pace to score better than a single point finishing in P10. The car showed improved performance at Losail when compared to the last few races.

Vettel was happy to bring home an important point but he explained the reason behind the unfortunate result after he was “squeezed” out in Turn 1 by Valtteri Bottas – due to his bad start – unlike teammate, Lance Stroll who finished 5th at the end of a difficult triple-header

Vettel felt there was certainly more in the car to do after having started inside the Top 10. “I was squeezed because Valtteri had a bad start and I had nowhere to go, there was a lot of dust and cars around me,” he said to written media. “I lost the car on the entry of Turn 1 trying to recover so many positions and went wide, lost places and I had to give way to the cars inside.”

Vettel made a huge recovery from 17th to get back in the top ten. The poor start lavished the car’s pace in Sunday’s Grand Prix. “I could have started 18th as well,” he joked. “Especially in Qatar the car was quick once we were in free air, we were having the same pace on the softs as the guys in front.

“We came to P10 somehow which is a reasonable recovery, ahead of the AlphaTauri and a McLaren. Its been a strong race but obviously the start hurts. It was good that we had two cars in points, we had good pace and achieved our target, just a shame I lost out at the start and potential to score more points,” summed up Vettel.

On the other hand, Stroll was satisfied scoring eight points for the team which showed a phenomenal performance at Qatar GP. The Canadian who made a one-stop strategy managed to gain six places from where he started and had to defend from Ferrari duo in the latter stages while trying to attack Esteban Ocon ahead.

“The car felt very good today and I am very happy with our performance,” said Stroll. “I made up a couple of places on lap one and over the first stint it was clear that we had pace to perform well.

“I overtook Tsunoda on the Mediums and then, after catching the guys ahead, undercut Sainz to move into sixth after stopping for the Hards. Overall, everything went perfectly for us and scoring eight points at the end of this triple-header is a very satisfying reward for all our hard work.”

The story was written by Oprah Sagal

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