Sebastian Vettel eighth "felt like a victory" for Aston Martin

Vettel, Aston Martin, Imola, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Vettel eighth "felt like a victory" for Aston Martin

The German ended the team's points drought

Ewan Gale

Monday 25 April 2022 16:45

Sebastian Vettel has conceded his eighth-place finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix felt "like a victory" for Aston Martin.

The Silverstone-based team was the only team to have failed to register a point ahead of the Imola sprint weekend but both Vettel and Lance Stroll entered the top 10 in wet-to-dry conditions.

Vettel was one of the first to switch to slick tyres and asked if it was an enjoyable race, the four-time champion replied: "Yeah it was.

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"For us, it was like a victory. We are not the fastest at the minute, we are pretty much at the other side of the field but we did really well.

"The weekend helped us with the conditions but we managed to capitalise. We did a great job on calling for the dries and everybody else then I think copied what we did. I was happy even to go a lap before, or two."

Vettel "would have taken" fighting Ferrari

After Charles Leclerc's late spin out of third, the Ferrari driver was able to scramble back to the pits for repairs and rejoin on fresh tyres in ninth.

The superiority of the F1-75 paired with fresh tyres allowed the championship leader to scythe through to sixth by the end of the race, including an overtake on Vettel.

"I think no chance to hold Charles off in the end,"

"He was like four seconds faster, or three seconds faster.

"We did well. If you tell us we are fighting a Ferrari with four laps to go before the race, I would have taken it."