Formula 1 | Ninth at Silverstone, Vettel was ‘surprised’ at his pace

Sebastian Vettel scored two points at the British Grand Prix with an unexpected ninth place after a difficult qualifying in 18th place. The Aston Martin F1 driver is happy to have taken the risk to stop early, and that it worked.

« We came in very early and basically undercut the whole peloton, » said Vettel. « We had a very good, fairly consistent pace to pull this off. We were surprised to be so fast and I was managing the tyres, and I think we would have gone all the way. »

« The safety car didn’t help us, we chose the medium tires and I think we should have used the soft ones to finish seventh. But it’s a very good result to finish in the points. »

Vettel did not watch the crash at the start during the break as he focused on the rest of his race. He just wanted to make sure everyone was okay before thinking about what the rest of his Grand Prix would be like.

« I was told everyone was fine, and I’ve only just seen the accident, it’s huge so I’m all the more happy that everyone is fine. It’s not the first time that we have a red flag, that everything is going badly while the peloton is back together. It’s good news that nothing bad happened. »

« For us it was good not to have big damage. I didn’t want to watch, I stayed in the race once I knew everyone was fine. I thought about the tires , what we had to do, where we were starting from. For you, it’s a break and you have time to talk, but for us, we stay in the race and it continues. »

On the other hand, Vettel deplores failed qualifications which cost Aston Martin very dearly: « It’s painful because in the race, in this pack of the peloton, there is a big risk of having an accident, or being blocked, and that impacts your result. We must have better Saturdays, that’s what who will help us. »

Out of the points at the finish, Lance Stroll was not dithyrambic: « It was tight, we had a good pace at one point, but in the end it’s a shame to miss out on points. »