Although he believes he could fight for fifth place, Sebastian Vettel left satisfied with his sixth place. Mainly because of the performance of the AMR22
Sebastian Vettel did well at the Azerbaijan GP. Not well enough to reach the podium - just as he did in 2021 - but he secured his best final race position with sixth place. And he left happy with the result, although he said he could fight for the top-5 against Pierre Gasly.
The German had an excellent stop, and even overtook Lewis Hamilton in the pits. However, the #5 ended up making a mistake when trying to overtake Esteban Ocon, which made him lose a good amount of time there. But he stopped again during the VSC occasioned by Carlos Sainz and, with newer tires, managed to secure his sixth place.
"I think sixth place is very good, we are very happy with the result," Vettel said. "We had an amazing pit-stop, we beat Lewis' Mercedes, and after that I think I would have passed Esteban by now, but I was a bit behind because I was sure he was going to fight too, so I got away and ended up off the track," he added.
"Without that lost time, I think we could have had a battle for fifth position, however, I think it's a very good result," he followed.
It is undeniable that AMR22 has not had the season that was expected. With many aerodynamic problems, Aston Martin didn't get good results and, because of that, it is in ninth place in the Constructors' World Championship - now tied with Haas, with 15 points. Seb sees, then, that the performance in Baku can be a good indication of improvement.
"We are testing the limits of this car and it seems to be worth it, but we also need to be realistic," Vettel said, when asked if it was the team's most competitive GP so far in 2022.
"I think this weekend we were a little bit stronger than [Alfa Romeo], matching the Alpine, matching the AlphaTauri, so it puts us in a different scenario. I think overall we're very pleased and obviously for everyone at Silverstone at the factory, I think it's a great result," he closed.