Otmar Szafnauer admits it was a frustrating Spanish Grand Prix for the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team on Sunday as both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were unable to break into the points despite being involved in the battle for the top ten all afternoon.
Stroll showed impressive overtaking skills to pass Fernando Alonso to move into the top ten late in the day, but a charging Pierre Gasly managed to get ahead of the Canadian and relegate him to eleventh at the chequered flag, the same place as where he started.
Team-mate Vettel also ended up exactly where he began in thirteenth despite moving up a spot at the start. However, keeping the performance in his tyres left him struggling towards the end and outside of the points.
“After sixty-six hard-fought laps, our two drivers finished today’s Spanish Grand Prix in the same positions as they had started it from: P11 for Lance and P13 for Sebastian,” said Szafnauer, the CEO and Team Principal of Aston Martin. “Yet it was an eventful afternoon for both of them.
“Sebastian made up a place at the start and, until the Safety Car was deployed, our two cars were running in line astern, Lance just ahead. Soon afterwards, Lance pulled off the overtaking manoeuvre of the race, a brilliant move on Fernando [Alonso], thereby moving up to tenth.
“However, towards the end of the race, both our drivers were passed by Pierre [Gasly], dropping them to eleventh [Lance] and thirteenth [Sebastian], with the result that, again, frustratingly, we narrowly failed to score points.”
