Sebastian Vettel saw Aston Martin racing to fix the #5 car between TL3 and qualifying this Saturday (30) in Hungary, but couldn't get a better result than 18th due to tire warm-up problems
Sebastian Vettel has entered the countdown towards retirement in Formula 1 at the end of this season. When he lines up for the Hungarian GP, the German will have only nine more races in the category ahead of him, but the 18th place in this Saturday's qualifying was something Vettel wasn't expecting so much.
In TL3, Vettel made a mistake when fighting for the top positions and damaged his Aston Martin car a bit. The mechanics were able to get the #5 ready in time for the session that would set the starting grid, but the four-time champion explained that he suffered from the temperature of the tires.
"The slip in TL3 was a shame - of course, it was my mistake, but I wasn't even pushing that hard when it happened," lamented Seb. "The track improved a lot throughout Q1. I thought my first lap was good, but I could only do one lap in the ideal temperature window. The tires overheated on my final lap," he said.
Vettel managed to be only better than Pierre Gasly - who had a fast lap deleted - and Nicholas Latifi - who also made a mistake when he was incredibly fastest in Q1, but finished last.
"That doesn't leave us in a good place for tomorrow. Fixing the car for qualifying with only a few minutes left and crashing in Q1 hurts a bit more," admits the driver. "There are very few possibilities to overtake here, so we need to see what we can do with the strategy in the race," Vettel finished.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. On Sunday, the race is scheduled to start at 10:00 am [GMT-3].