It’s a copy-paste we witnessed at Sunday’s Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix, when the two Aston Martin team drivers battled it out for the last available point at the end of the race, as they did in France the previous week .
• Also read: F1: Max Verstappen dominates in Hungary
Only this time the roles have been reversed.
Sebastian Vettel, who will retire at the end of the season, finished tenth, just ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.
“We have no more time”
Before the curtain fell, the team asked the Quebec driver to let Vettel through.
“I had a better chance than Lance of catching Esteban [Ocon] for ninth place,” explained the German.
But the failure of Valtteri Bottas five laps before the end, which forced the deployment of the virtual safety car, prevented Vettel from snatching ninth place from the Alpine team driver with a last attempt to overtake.
“We ran out of time,” said Vettel. I was very close on the last lap but I think I needed one more corner to get going. Overall it was a fun race with lots of fights. »
Clashes with Ricciardo
Often criticized for his rough behavior since the start of the season, Stroll has nothing to reproach himself for in Budapest.
After reaching the second qualifying round (Q2) for the first time after eight attempts, he was able to move up a few places before his first pit stop.
But in the battle for seventh place, Stroll collided with Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) on lap 48 of 70 laps.
“I gave him space on the inside in the second turn,” said the Quebecer, but then he fell back on me. I think he struggled to find grip on his hard tires and he went too far. »
The Australian’s maneuver caught the eye of the Marshalls, who penalized him with five seconds.
“Despite everything, there are a lot of positive things to take away from today,” concluded Stroll. We also need to understand why our pace was better in the race than in qualifying. »
From heroes to… zero
Nicholas Latifi was the slowest driver in the first qualifying round (Q1) after paying for his first brilliant performance in Formula 1 with the best time in the last free practice session the day before.
“In Q1 I made a big mistake that prevented me from reaching Q2. It’s frustrating to go from hero to…zero,” he admitted.
At the start of Sunday’s race, Latifi was hardly convincing when he sustained a damaged front wing that affected his Williams’ handling.
The Torontonian will end his career in 18th place. Another role of figuration on his part.
As a reminder, Latifi was the last to attempt a fast final lap in Saturday’s free practice as the rain had stopped and track conditions were more favourable.
The F1 circus now embarks on its annual month-long holiday before resuming operations. On the return trip, three Grands Prix are on the calendar in three weeks: Belgium (28 August), the Netherlands (4 September) and Italy (11 September).