上海站:如果这是亮点,says a lot about the weekend

Behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz classic on the driver parade, Sebastian Vettel says if that was the highlight of his Mexican GP weekend, that “says a lot” about how it went.

Vettel’s run of top-ten results ended at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday, the driver down in 14th place.

It was a lacklustre weekend from Aston Martin as a whole, neither driver making it out of Q1 nor scoring points.

There was, however, one bright moment on Sunday as Vettel kicked his and Lance Stroll’s chauffeur out of the Mercedes-Benz they were to use for the driver parade, the driver declaring there wasn’t enough room for three so he’d take the wheel.

“I don’t know how to get three people in two seats, so I told my colleague he can get out,” he told Sky Germany.

Asked if that had been a ‘highlight’ for him, he replied: “If that’s a highlight of the weekend, that says a lot about the weekend!”

Seb going off completely from the drivers parade to wave at fans# MexicoGP#F1ESTA#Vettel#SV5pic.twitter.com/lJEjlg27Iv

— Sebastian Vettel Updates (@ocsebvettel)October 30, 2022

Vettel lined up 16th on the grid, the German hoping to work his way forward after a disappointing qualifying.

But lacking pace he made up all of two positions,crossing the line 14th to his team-mate’s P15.

“It was difficult,” he said. “We just didn’t have the pace.

“We tried everything but we were too slow. We don’t know why it was such a big difference from last week.

“汽车was just slow from the start. This isn’t the first race where that’s happened to us. It’s not like we haven’t had that this year. But compared to last weekend… we have to understand.”

Asked if the car felt better than it had on Saturday when he lost out on a Q2 berth, he simply replied: “No.”

With the Mexican Grand Prix completed, Vettel now just has two more grand prix weekends before he calls time on his Formula 1 career.

“With the sprint race [in Brazil] there are actually three,” he pointed out. “The mood is still good, but of course not as high as it could have been after a race like this.”

Aston Martin remain seventh in theConstructors’ Championship, the team losing just a single point to Alfa Romeo in the battle for P6.

“Luckily,” Vettel added, “we did not lose too much ground in the fight for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.”

Read more: Conclusions from Max Verstappen’s record-breaking win at the Mexican Grand Prix