“What?! Oh man!” – Sebastian Vettel has no hopes of Aston Martin improving in Jeddah today after both he and Lance Stroll failed to make it past Q1 yesterday.
Sebastian Vettel screamed “What?! Oh man!” after he was informed by Aston Martin on team radio that he has failed to make it to the second session of qualifying in Jeddah yesterday.
A four-time world champion, no less, it was an embarrassing day for the German, something the media felt when he shared his thoughts on the disaster.
“Qualifying P17, if that’s not disappointing to you then… except for the Haas because their car is clearly the worst on the grid.
“The laps feel good, the balance – once we get it – is okay. But we are miles away. And then you look at the onboards of the others and there’s no secret, they’re just faster.
“Nothing changed, it’s the same car. I think we’re just not a good match to this track. We struggled a bit to get the tyres to work but I think so did everybody.
“I guess just not efficient around here. It doesn’t play to our strengths.”
Lance Stroll qualified ahead of just Haas
Vettel’s teammate Lance Stroll had a worse evening, qualifying a poor P18, ahead of only the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
Stroll has had a poor campaign in his first season’s with his dad’s company proper, something that could put pressure on his seat in the coming season. As of now, though, he is just focused on salvaging the race today and earning a point or two for the British automobile giant.
“I am really disappointed to have ended up in P18 because traffic at the end of the session ruined my qualifying.
“It was like a parking lot and there was nothing I could do. As a result, I was not able to put in a flying lap when the track and tyres were at their optimum and it proved very costly.
“I think we would have had enough to make it into Q2 otherwise. We will go away and review to see if there is anything we could have done differently.
“We have never raced here before, so we will have to see how the Grand Prix plays out tomorrow and try to make up some places.”
