Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Sebastian Vettel who started today’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from 17th place says that the incident with Kimi Raikkonen really destroyed his event and he was forced to retire from event.
Speaking following the action, Vettel said:
“A tough way to end the race [with significant floor damage] and a shame we lost the chance to fight for points properly. Things were going our way in the early part of the race. Having started in P17, we were up inside the points after the restarts. I was running ahead of the Ferraris, but we did not have the strongest pace today and we were under pressure. Yuki [Tsunoda] hit me in the first chicane, which dropped me down the pack. Then there was the incident with Kimi [Räikkönen], which completely destroyed my race [with the damage caused]. I had the track position and there is not enough room for two cars in that corner so I think Kimi needed to back out.”
Lance Stroll started the race from 18th place and came home just outside the top ten in eleventh place. Speaking following the race he said:
“It was a shame not to get points, especially because we came so close in the end in P11. The first red flag went against us because we had pitted earlier, but we were able to make a couple of very good restarts following the stoppages to climb to P10. We initially pulled a good gap to [Lando] Norris behind, but overtaking proved easier than expected and we just lacked a little bit of pace on the straights, so we could not hold onto P10. I was optimistic because the balance of the car felt good, but P11 was probably the maximum in the end.”
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team Principal and CEO Otmar Szafnauer commented saying:
“After an incident-packed evening Sebastian eventually had to retire a few laps from the end, his car too damaged as a result of contact with other cars, particularly Kimi’s [Räikkönen] Alfa Romeo. Lance might well have scored points but, unfortunately, he was disadvantaged when we tyre-stopped him during a Safety Car deployment triggered by Mick’s [Schumacher] accident, a logical strategy that was stymied by the red flag that followed soon after. In the end he finished a plucky 11th. From here we go straight to Abu Dhabi, where we hope to finish the season in better style, ideally with a double points finish.”
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