WATCH: Sebastian Vettel Reacts in Agony After Aston Martin’s Awful Qualifying Show in Saudi Arabia

After a strong showing in Qatar with a double-points finish from Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, Aston Martin would have marched into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix hoping to deliver another such formidable outing. However, that hasn’t been the case so far as this is instead turning out to be a weekend to forget for the British outfit.

Right from the word ‘go’, Aston Martin have found themselves on the back foot, struggling to bring about the right set-ups into the cars. Not only was this the case on Friday, but also during the final practice session on Saturday.

Hence, with the rest of the mid-field pack looking more competitive than ever, qualifying was always going to be a fuzzy 60-minute session for Aston Martin.

And rightfully so, neither Vettel nor Stroll even made it out of the first part of qualifying. However, despite carrying the obvious pace disadvantage, the 4-time world champion was absolutely shocked when he heard the news that he couldn’t save himself out of the bottom 5.

What did Sebastian Vettel say?

Vettel rushed to the team radio after completing his final Q1 run, hoping to hear some good news. But, what he instead heard was that he only managed P17 and over 0.25s adrift Fernando Alonso in P15. Hearing the numbers, Vettel marched into the world of denial.

The German couldn’t believe that he failed to make it into Q2, as he felt that his lap was good enough. “What? Oh man!” Vettel yelled in shock. “Sorry about the mess in the last corner. No way, how much?”

“So, car ahead is two hundredths,” Vettel’s race engineer responded.

Eventually, Vettel blamed the insane traffic around the final corner as part of the reason behind his poor qualifying result. “No way we lost it, turn 22 the traffic; that was not great. So, that’s it,” the former Red Bull world champion said.

Overall, while Vettel managed to claim P17, his teammate, Lance Stroll ended up further down in P18. This is indeed a new low for Aston Martin, who have found themselves as the second slowest car, only after Haas. So, can either of the drivers bounce back on Sunday to deliver some morale-boosting points for the team?

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