The only Aston Martin to make it to the finish on Sunday in the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix is the Safety Car.
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Despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll took advantage of several penalties to gain a number of starting positions (after disastrous qualification), both were forced to retire on laps 11 and 40 respectively.
“We had mechanical issues and the team decided to abandon our race to save the engine,” said the Quebec driver. It’s a shame you are not as fast as we had hoped at Monza and you have to know why it was so difficult. »
Failed farewell
As for teammate Vettel, who was last in Italy, he was the first to get into the pits out of only 20 participants and never came out.
We had a problem with the kinetic energy harvester [SREC] And we had no choice but to stop,” explained the future retiree who will surely have bad memories of his last Grand Prix at Monza, where he won the first of his 53 Formula 1 victories there.
Vettel and Stroll qualified 17th and 18th respectively the day before in qualifying. Only the two Haas colorists (Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher) did worse.
Really amazing…
He has been elected Driver of the Day and it is a fully deserved honor. In his first-ever Grand Prix, Nick de Vries finished ninth and earned a rare two points for the Williams team.
Although he had to wait at the age of 27 for his chance in Formula 1, the Dutchman has made a name for himself while there are still a few spaces to fill for next season.
On Saturday morning, De Vries was called up to replace Thailand’s Alex Albon, a victim of appendicitis, and was quick to show his colors by reaching the second round (Q2) of the afternoon qualifiers.
… nice fumes
In just one outing in Formula One, de Vries has accomplished what his teammate Nicholas Latifi failed to do in his last 26 starts: he scored at least one point in the world championship.
Does the Canadian driver feel the end of his F1 career is near? However, when he got out of the car, he made no secret of his dissatisfaction with a team that could only entrust his full-time seat to De Vries next year.
Latif also took advantage of penalties to start from 10th when the red lights went out, and he regretted not only the behavior of some of his rivals at the start of the course, but also the choppy handling of his singles seat. He finished the race 15th, one lap behind winner Max Verstappen.
“It was a difficult start,” Latifi said. I was squeezed between several cars at the start, and the drivers passed the first corner without me being punished.
“All I can do is try to defend myself,” Latifi said. Williams is not a car one can hope to win. »