Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll are pleased to score first points for themselves and Aston Martin in the 2022 F1 season at Imola.
It’s been a tough and challenging start to the 2022 campaign for Aston Martin. Team boss Mike Krack has, with respect had to endure a baptism of fire. For four time WDC Vettel, his own season had a delayed start with Covid-19, but at the same time a more than able replacement in Nico Hulkenburg who did a good enough job as a last minute stand in.
Vettel started his campaign in Australia and even then it was arduous for the German. But the opening European event of the season saw the veteran take a fighting eighth place at Imola for his opening points of the campaign.
A good qualifying saw him start the sprint event ninth, albeit he dropped back to 13th. He started the main race from there and a good solid performance saw Aston Martin get points which will relieve them greatly as the German returned to his own self.
“I think it was good obviously, good call to go on the slicks,” said Vettel. “I was already trigger happy let’s say a lap or two earlier but we spoke together and so yeah I think we could have made more progress then Valtteri came out because they saw obviously that I was quick so they all came in and I was a bit stuck”.
“In those conditions I felt I could make a big difference getting the tyres to work quickly but then it was important that we had the faster cars behind and we were managing well the tyres to the end, wasn’t sure whether we would make it but I think it was a really good race from us and to have both cars in the points obviously we benefited from the conditions today but yeah we had no mistakes and really good race,” summed up Vettel.
Of course, Vettel up to a few years ago was winning races with ease. It is a different ball game these days for him but the result has him rather upbeat. “If I’m honest, it’s eighth place but for us it is like a victory, that’s the way it is,” he continued. “I drove a really good race and I was really happy with my performance”.
“I don’t think I could have done anything better, let’s put it this way, I’ve won races where I’ve driven worse. I’m really happy and hopefully we use that momentum, we know that the races to come will be tough but hopefully we can use that to head in the right direction. It’s a better start than Melbourne but is still a long way, we need to wait but we will get some stuff but it will take some time,” summed up Vettel, who added more on making most of others mistakes.
“I think we took our opportunities where some people made mistakes and we were faultless and did a really good race, managed the tyres well, switched to the dry tyres at the right time I do think we were spot on and overachieved,” noted Vettel.
As the German alluded to both Aston Martin cars made it to the Top 10 with teammate Stroll scoring his first points of the season with a tidy drive. “I’m really happy with it,” he said. “It was great. Both cars in the points. We just had a better day today, the pace was better and yeah, we were able to…I was pretty surprised, at the beginning of the race it was, it was tough, like the tyres were overheating, the track was drying up”.
“Relative to the cars around us, we were actually pretty competitive putting pressure on Tsunoda, holding off Hamilton. So I felt like we were in a good position, considering the fact that it was difficult for everyone at the beginning of the race. And then when we got on the medium we were again I think pretty strong”.
“The AlphaTauri in front of us, Tsunoda, was in another league. He was mega quick, so he pulled away. But we were able to pull away from Ocon and some cars behind us. So I think that’s a positive day for us,” summed up Stroll, who joined the points wagon leaving only Mick Schmacher and Nicholas Latifi without points.
