The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant System One Group got here so near reaching their pre-race purpose of scoring a double factors end on the Belgian Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel ending eighth and Lance Stroll in eleventh.
Vettel drove beautifully in his final race at Spa-Francorchamps. The German demonstrated stable tempo able to battling with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, one thing which has been just about not possible for the four-time World Champion this season given the AMR22’s combined efficiency.
Stroll additionally drove brilliantly, however ultimately didn’t fairly have sufficient to beat Alex Albon for the ultimate factors place. The Canadian driver was caught behind Albon for an obscene variety of laps, with the Thai/British driver having seemingly made his automobile a mile broad. Stroll ended up being caught in a DRS practice, which means he needed to stability his focus between attacking and defending.
Group Principal Mike Krack hoped each drivers would end within the factors; nevertheless, he did reward Stroll for “executing some spectacular” overtakes.
“After qualifying yesterday we mentioned that our purpose could be to attain factors with each vehicles in at this time’s race, and we very almost achieved simply that: Sebastian completed a fantastic eighth, and Lance ended up eleventh, lower than a second behind the Tenth-placed finisher [Albon]. We began each vehicles on Mediums, then break up the methods [Vettel: Medium-Hard-Medium; Stroll: Medium-Medium-Hard].
“Each drivers optimised the possibilities that these two methods gave them, Lance specifically executing some spectacular overtaking manoeuvres en route, and as I say we had been solely a whisker away from scoring factors with each vehicles. From right here we go straight to Zandvoort [Netherlands], the place we will probably be hoping so as to add additional to our World Championship factors whole.”
