Sebastian Vettel’s Misfortunate F1 Streak Continues as Monaco GP Brings Its Own Hiccup

Sebastian Vettel had a fine qualifying for Monaco GP, securing P9 for the main race’s starting grid. Seb could have even secured P8, but couldn’t finish his last flying lap because of the last-minute chaos on the track. Further, the qualifying had another trouble for the Aston Martin driver as he broke an FIA rule again this season.

The 34-year-old broke the pit-lane rule of speeding, going over the allowed limit. According to FIA Article 34.7, a driver can’t go over 60 kmph in the pit lane. But the Aston Martin driver exceeded the limit by three kmph and broke the pit lane rule. As a result, the Stewards asked the Silverstone-based team to pay a fine of 300 euros.

Monaco GP wasn’t the first incident this season when Vettel broke the FIA rule. In the 2022 Australian GP practice session, Seb’s AMR22 had issues with the engine as it started to smoke after Vettel pulled up at the side of the track and jumped out. Vettel extinguished the fire and then took a scooter from a marshal to ride back to his garage via the circuit while waving at fans.

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Undoubtedly, fans enjoyed seeing Vettel on a scooter waving at them. But the stewards later fined the four-time world champion for breaching FIA Article 26.7. According to this regulation, no one is allowed on the track after five minutes of ending a session. But Seb was there on the track without any authority and had to pay a fine of 5000 euros.

Sebastian Vettel is happy with the Monaco qualifying

The 2022 season hasn’t been going as the German would have wanted it to. Vettel currently ranks P14 in the driver’s championship with just four points.

Further, he hasn’t qualified in the top 10 for most of the races this season. This weekend’s P9 result was the second time Seb reached Q3 in 2022, making him happy with the qualifying results.

However, he could have finished one or two positions higher but couldn’t because of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz’s crash that brought a premature end to the qualifying.

Post-qualifying, the 34-year-old reported, “Overall, we’re very happy. We got into Q3 and had a really good lap in Q2. In Q3, the first run was good, so I think we are happy. To have the red flag at the end, I don’t want to say it was kind of expected, but obviously highly likely here.”

READ MORE: WATCH: Sebastian Vettel Left in Shock as Carlos Sainz Nearly Triggers Scary Crash at Monaco GP

After securing P9 in qualifying, the German will be eyeing to finish top 10 in the Sunday race and bag points for his team. Do you expect Vettel to finish in the top 10 in the principality?