Aston Martin "more aggressive" than rivals in Austrian GP practice - Sebastian Vettel

Vettel, Aston Martin, Austria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

Aston Martin "more aggressive" than rivals in Austrian GP practice - Vettel

Vettel finished fifth in the afternoon session with team-mate stroll fourth

Ewan Gale

Friday 2 July 2021 20:34 Updated: 20:38

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Sebastian Vettel believes Aston Martin was "more aggressive" than its rivals after securing fourth and fifth in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin has struggled for single-lap pace during its first season back in F1 but both Vettel and Lance Stroll impressed during qualifying simulations at the Red Bull Ring, being beaten only by the two Mercedes drivers and Max Verstappen.

Vettel has remained coy on the team's chances in qualifying, however, suggesting its rivals had been more conservative during the low-fuel runs.

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"It is Friday so if we are P5 tomorrow, that would be amazing but it is still early days and maybe we were a little bit more aggressive than other people," said Vettel.

"It is definitely good, we will take it. We tried a couple of things as well so let's see tomorrow. Different conditions this weekend, hopefully, we have done our homework in our time in between and are a bit stronger this weekend.

"Last Saturday wasn't that good so hopefully we have a better day, smooth runs and obviously the aim is to go as high up as possible. Q3 is what we are aiming for which is the top 10."

Stroll praises Pirelli for softer compounds

In order to change the status quo from the Styrian Grand Prix at the same venue last time out, Pirelli has gone a step softer with the tyres it has allocated for this weekend's running.

After recovering from an incident-filled FP1 to set the fourth-fastest time of the afternoon, Canadian Stroll praised the move, hoping it would spice the action up during the race on Sunday.

"It felt pretty good out there but I am not sure what the others are up to though so we will see tomorrow," he added when asked how the AMR21 performed on track.

"It was an eventful morning but a smooth afternoon. Overall I think we got some good laps in today and learnt a lot so I look forward to tomorrow.

"It is definitely different to last week. I think it is great Pirelli brought a different tyre, it mixes things up and just behaves a little bit differently but it feels good on the softer compound and it might mix up strategy for the race a little bit which would be cool."