via Reuters
Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 20, 2022 Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel talks to the media ahead of the United States Grand Prix REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo
via Reuters
Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 20, 2022 Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel talks to the media ahead of the United States Grand Prix REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo
Formula 1 is in Mexico for the 20th round of the 2022 F1 season. The pinnacle form of motorsport is at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where the usual Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes fought their habitual fights for domination. Far from the front packs, there was Sebastian Vettel who could only joke about the situation he was in during the Qualification.
#MexicoGP Post Qualifying Sebastian Vettel interview:“If you find grip send it to our garage, for some reason he escaped” 😂#SV5 #Vettel #F1 #F1ESTA pic.twitter.com/NUq0qpIyBy
— out of context Sebastian Vettel (@ocsebvettel) October 29, 2022
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As Saturday’s qualification got over, the former Ferrari driver didn’t have the result he would have hoped for. Coming out from the United States as the driver of the day, a P17 in the qualifying in Mexico is certainly not the result anyone like Seb would appreciate.
However, if not anything else, the Aston Martin driver could only joke about the situation. During an interview after the qualification, Vettel conveyed, “If you find grip, send him to us, in our garage. For some reason, he escaped, so we try to find him. But, we’ll see.”
As the Aston Martin AMR22s were relatively slower and had lesser grips than their competitors, Vettel could only expect better traction and grips for the race day. Talking about this, the 35-year-old stated, “Tomorrow is a day, we’ll turn the page. As much as it hurts today, because we were so slow and we’re starting so far back, I’ll have to focus to try and do a better job tomorrow.”
How did the Mexican GP qualifying turn out for Sebastian Vettel?
After some decent performances in Free Practices, it was expected from the Aston Martin drivers to qualify for Q2, at least. However, Q1 was the last the Aston Martin drivers could afford. For Vettel, his FP1 performance was pretty good as he clocked 1:21.525 on the timesheet with P10 in the standings.
An early end to qualifying for the team.
It’s time to band together and come back fighting tomorrow.#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/6l4Xbx4u5N
— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) October 29, 2022
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Vettel ran for 23 laps and 32 laps in FP1 and FP2, respectively. The German clocked in 1:22.371 and had to stay in P12 in the FP2 standings. As compared to the first two Free Practices, the last one wasn’t that great as he clocked 1:20.980 after running for 22 laps with P19. This was the time Vettel and his team learned the bitter truth.
After finishing in a low FP3, Vettel could only manage P17 in Q1 as he went out at the same time as Mick Schumacher of Haas. Having clocked at 1:20.419, the four-time world champion was 1.250 slower than P15 Kevin Magnussen. Interestingly, Magnussen took his teammate out as Schumacher had the same time as Vettel.
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Things weren’t good for the other Aston Martin driver as well. Lance Stroll went out in Q1 as well. Stroll could only manage 1:20.520 on the time sheet, which was 1.351 slower than the eliminator mark. As the Aston Martin duo starts from lowly P17 and P18, it’ll be interesting to see how they manage to go up the grid.
