Sebastian Vettel acknowledged that the Aston Martin had run on the limit, but still didn't finish very happy. As for Lance Stroll's close call, he put up a good fight. The Canadian justified himself by the move
Aston Martin started the Formula One French GP weekend threatened that, with the upgrades to Williams, it would be at the back of the pack. It didn't. Lance Stroll was tenth and scored, while Sebastian Vettel came in 11th. On the last lap, there was still a crude closed door from Stroll to his teammate, which made Vettel even signal with his hand. After the race, however, the four-time champion preferred to avoid problems.
Even though he gained positions, Vettel assessed that the day was frustrating as he basically stayed in the same place without having a chance to pass anyone outside the Aston Martin scope for the rest of the day. In the end, he had a chance to catch Stroll, but Lance closed the door and almost caused a touch.
"My afternoon was frustrating. I was stuck in traffic for the whole race, but it's something you expect when you start in the middle of the pack. With the strategy and everything, I don't think there was much more the team could do today. We obviously need more grip," he said.
"Things weren't bad for us in the race: the cars in front of us didn't disappear. Also, we understood our own car a little better. I had a chance to pass Lance on the last lap and was a bit faster, but we're not going to fight over a point. It's the same result for the team and it doesn't make any difference," he finished.
Stroll hails "great first lap" and says he blames tires for closing in on Vettel
The Canadian driver was bursting with pride about what he managed to do on the first lap of the race, when he went from 15th to 10th. As for the close call on Vettel, he said it was an escape from the track due to tire wear.
"We had a great first lap today that put us in position to have great race. I almost caught up with Ocon at turn nine still, but it was important to get a good start like that. I felt I had the momentum to attack Ricciardo at the end, too," he said.
"We continue on the trend of being more competitive on Sunday, so today's race was a good platform as the summer break approaches," he followed.
"I slipped off the track on the last lap, because I was having a lot of trouble touching the tires at that little end. The fight with Sebastian was good, but the most important thing was to take the points home," he justified.
Formula 1 returns next weekend, July 29-31, at the Hungaroring, with the Hungarian Grand Prix, which closes the first part of the championship.