Vettel ‘did homework’ to earn France points finish

Henry Valantine
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel said he and his team “did our homework” as they made their alternate strategy pay off at the French Grand Prix.

The four-time World Champion decided to start on the hard compound tyre in the hope of making headway in the pack and having softer rubber at the end to try and make up positions.

He managed to make up three places overall on the day and spoke of his frustration at not being able to catch those in front of him in time before the end of the race.

“The start was not that good, I think I lost a place to Antonio in the opening corners, then I got him back and I got Esteban so that was good in the first couple of laps,” Vettel told Sky Sports after the race.

“Then we were obviously on a different strategy, we started with the hards – which was very difficult to hold onto.

“The conditions today were tricky. We know that tyres today were difficult for everybody, but we can be happy with points.

“[It was] a bit of an anti-climax because the group ahead of me, I was catching [them] but just run out of laps.

“Overall, it’s good to have both cars in the points. We did our homework and I think we got the maximum out of today.”

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Team-mate Lance Stroll was the big loser from a red-flagged Q1 session on Saturday. With his only flying lap deleted due to a track limits infringement, he started P19 after a second Q1 elimination running.

In following Vettel on going deep into the race on his first stint, he managed to climb his way up to take a point with a P10 finish at Paul Ricard, giving him the biggest improvement of any driver compared to their qualifying position.

Speaking after the race, the Canadian said he was pleased with where he ended up after the chequered flag dropped.

“I didn’t get a great start, but I overtook some cars in the first few laps. The car felt good and we had some good pace throughout the race,” Stroll said.

“I did all my overtaking on track, so that gave us a good result today.”

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