Sebastian Vettel reckoned it was a good afternoon for him during the United States Grand Prix after he climbed from the back of the grid to finish tenth and claim a valuable world championship point.
The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver had been forced to start at the rear of the field after taking a penalty for an engine change at the Circuit of the Americas, but he was able to stay out of trouble on the opening lap before making a good charge through the field.
He was running eleventh late in the day after passing Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi, which became tenth a lap later after Kimi Räikkönen made a mistake and span into the gravel trap.
And Vettel was pleased to have made the points after good strategy calls, although he feels he could have claimed ninth from Yuki Tsunoda had the race been a couple of laps longer.
“We only scored one point today and we had to fight hard,” said Vettel. “It was a good recovery after the grid penalty yesterday and when we were in clean air the pace was good.
“As we expected, it was a difficult race for everybody trying to manage the tyres with the hot track temperatures. I was happy when everybody pitted quite early because we knew we would have a chance by running longer.
“It gave us fresher tyres at the end, when it mattered, so we could move up into the top 10. It was a good strategy by the team. With a couple more laps, we would have caught [Yuki] Tsunoda, but, from where we started, I think scoring a point is a good result.”
“It is a race to forget” – Lance Stroll
Whereas Vettel was pleased with his recovery, team-mate Lance Stroll was less than thrilled with his race at the Circuit of the Americas, with the Canadian being spun around by countryman Nicholas Latifi at turn one on the opening lap.
The incident left Stroll at the back of the field and with a damaged car, and although he was able to finish twelfth, he was never a threat to the points-paying positions throughout the afternoon.
“It was not our weekend,” said Stroll. “After yesterday’s qualifying, where we were affected by the yellow flags, I was hit at Turn One on the very first lap today.
“The contact dropped me to the back of the field and I picked up a significant amount of damage on the front wing. It cost us some performance, but we still managed to fight our way up the field.
“However, points were just out of reach in the end. It is a race to forget, and we will move on and look to come back stronger in Mexico.”
