Sebastian Vettel said he nearly ran into the back of his team mate on the final lap of the French Grand Prix when the other Aston Martin suddenly slowed.
The pair were fighting over the last point for tenth place. Vettel nearly collided with Lance Stroll, who finished tenth and took the point, as they crossed the finishing line.“I closed the gap the lap before,” he explained. “I think I was faster, but it doesn’t matter. It’s the same point for the team.”
“He was obviously hitting the brakes again before accelerating, so it caught me by surprise, then I lost the momentum,” he added. “In the end, like I said, it’s the same point for the team.”
Vettel believes he might have been able to finish higher up if he’d been able to get out of traffic. “It’s free air that I needed today, but I didn’t have,” he said.
“It’s not like we had the pace to win. But I think we could have been faster and could have been probably having a better race. For the [pit] stop, I was the last one to stop. So it’s something to look into.”
Stroll said he had “a snap on the exit on the last lap because I was struggling with my tyres at the very end.”
“It was a good fight with Sebastian, but the most important thing was to bring a point home for the team today,” he added.
Having started behind Vettel, Stroll got ahead of him on lap one as he gained five positions. “We had a great first lap today that set us up to have a great race,” he said. “I nearly got Ocon in turn nine as well, but it was important to have such a good start.
“I felt I had some momentum in the closing stages to possibly catch Ricciardo. We are continuing our trend of being more competitive on a Sunday so today is a good platform as the summer break approaches.”
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2022 French Grand Prix
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Ruben
25th July 2022, 11:15
I posted it somewhere else, but since it was such a nasty move I’m gonna post it here again. That was no “snap on the exit on the last lap because I was struggling with my tyres at the very end.” if you ask me.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
25th July 2022, 11:16
A very dangerous move to pull, and especially on a teammate. I honestly don’t know what Stroll was thinking.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
25th July 2022, 12:06
Stroll was mentally unstable all race. He told his engineer to shut up over the radio.
Dex
25th July 2022, 15:15
I don’t have many positive thoughts regarding daddy’s son. Radio, on the other hand… We just hear what they select for us, it can be so, so out of context, so don’t take it seriously. I mean, when I used to play video games with my cousins, we’d yell all sorts of things over Skype during tense situations, that’s normal communication between friends and colleagues sometimes (this isn’t chess, but driving above 200 km/h through corners, fighting equally fast going cars). It’s not about manners, it’s about having no time to figure a polite sentence. It happens to all drivers, from Hamilton, Verstappen, Leclerc or Sainz to Stroll or Tsunoda. Some are more calm (or lucky to be under less pressure driving better cars), some are less, but 90% is down to whoever edits those audio clips.
AlanD
25th July 2022, 21:28
Jim, I wasn’t impressed with that either. It sounded petulant, or like he was playing to the radio audience. When Kimi famously told his engineer to shut up and leave him alone, you knew Kimi was not so fluent in English so a conversation is more of a distraction for him, and Kimi was probably driving F1 cars while the engineer was still in shorts, but Stroll doing it just seemed immature.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
25th July 2022, 21:50
Also, Kimi was leading a race behind a safety car preparing for a restart when he made that famous comment.
Lance could use a good stern talking to from his daddy, if that’s what it takes to get him to shape up.
Ominous
27th July 2022, 10:50
When Räikkönen says it, people adore him for it but when Stroll says the same, to leave him alone, it’s now ”petulant”. Can’t people just stop with their mindless hate about Stroll. If he doesn’t want to be bothered by the same thing, then he can ask to be left alone.
S
26th July 2022, 7:31
A lot (really, loads) of drivers have said that to their teams while under the influence of adrenaline before. Some have said a lot worse without anywhere near the fuss that’s being made over this.
I wonder if these reactions are based (at least partially) on who it is, rather than what they said or how they said it….
slowmo (@slowmo)
25th July 2022, 12:12
About the only way he can get anyone talking about him as his driving is distinctly below average and he’s long past the point he should have been sacked. Shocking waste of a seat given the talent that could be occupying it.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
25th July 2022, 16:20
@slowmo sacked? He shouldn’t be in F1 in the first place and is only racing due to his daddy and his multi billions who LITERALLY brought force India so Lance could race!
Its insane to think that believe there are people who think stroll is F1 material
S
25th July 2022, 12:15
Pretty standard move. No point over-reacting.
There isn’t a racing driver on Earth who hasn’t held up a competitor at the apex to prevent an over-under move before.
As Vettel says – it’s the same point for the team, no matter who got it. Why exactly would he try putting the move on there if he wasn’t putting himself above the team (again)?
Qeki (@qeki)
25th July 2022, 12:54
It is a standard move except if your teammate is right behind you. You can also accelerate a bit later so the car behind has to lift and then you can go full beans ahead.
Mark
25th July 2022, 12:54
Agreed. Slowing on the apex is the standard defence against that overtake.
Feel like I’m living in an alternate universe seeing all this vitriol against Stroll.
S
25th July 2022, 14:31
I’m quite used to the vitriol against Stroll – but that doesn’t mean he always deserves it.
He did nothing wrong here. Actually, he was being quite smart, and you’d hope he’d have done it to any other competitor too.
Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
26th July 2022, 13:29
I think this was slightly different tbh, as in it was after he’d apexed and he then moved over to block the other exit line.
He’d have been find had he taken his line in, parked it on the apex, slowed the car behind and then set off. This was clumsy and a bit desperate in comparison.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
25th July 2022, 13:28
It depends. If it was as Seb said and Lance actually hit the brakes on or after the apex then that’s a dangerous move and if it resulted in contact then definitely worthy of a penalty. You aren’t allowed to brake test people. But if he just hesitated on the throttle and ‘parked it on the apex’ then that’s a legitimate racing move and it’s up to the driver following to react and avoid. Would have to see the telemetry to know for sure, but given that the incident was between two teammates, noone is going to do that investigation.
S
25th July 2022, 14:28
Doesn’t look like it was too late to slow to me, no matter how he did it. He was still short of his apex.
And Vettel does have a history of interpreting a lack of acceleration to be a brake test…
David
25th July 2022, 21:19
stroll was almost 20 km/h slower than in the previous lap. it was a dirty move, seb didn’t say a word in his in-lap
Adam (@rocketpanda)
25th July 2022, 12:17
Yeah, this move wasn’t a good one. It was harsh, perhaps a little dangerous and a very odd one to pull against your team-mate. Sorry to any fan of Stroll out there but for the experience he has he should be a lot better than he is. Arguably one of the worst on the current grid.
Qeki (@qeki)
25th July 2022, 12:56
@rocketpanda It seems like Stroll (in his head) still has to show to the team that he can beat Vettel by doing these little tricks. Which is of course what he needs to do but there a more clever ways to beat your teammate than brake testing them in the middle of the last corner at the last lap of the GP
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
25th July 2022, 14:35
What were you doing behind him? He beat you. Your career isn’t sustainable. Go and save some bees.
milansson
25th July 2022, 16:42
if you have the guts to write such a comment here, please send it to aston martin so that they can share it with Seb..
Seb did not say anything negative about Stroll in the interview so I absolutely do not understand this comment of yours..
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
25th July 2022, 21:53
@bullfrog When you can no longer afford fresh food, you’ll wish that someone had of saved the bees. Buzz off!
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
25th July 2022, 21:54
@bullfrog When you can no longer afford fresh food, you’ll wish that someone had saved the bees. Buzz off!
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
25th July 2022, 16:47
Lance stroll proving to the world that he is not F1 material and only racing due to daddy pumping $100’s millions for his clearly untalented son to larp as a F1 driver. Stroll snr is the typical billionaire suffering from narcissism and delusions of grandeur, he has gone as far as buying a team for his son to race in F1!(to go even further he basically brought his sons championships in F3 and F4 because he made a massive $20m+ investment in Prema Powerteam also hiring F1 engineers and pit crew to work for his son in the lower formula..) the only way he will be ‘sacked’ is when daddy says so, I wouldn’t be surprised if lance has the best engineers and best parts compared to Seb to give him an unfair advantage on track.
I dont want to go on a full anti lance tirade but I am sick of F1 becoming a closed shop consisting of state backed flag carrier for nation branding propaganda(zhou-ccp, maldanardo-hugo chavez PDVSA), 100+million/billionaire daddy with pushy parent syndrome(latifi,norris,stroll,mazepin) massive pay driver backing(perez-carlos slim telcel) and nepotism(verstappen,sainz). Who are the drivers in F1 with a ‘normal’ background in F1 without millionaire parents or massive pay driver backing? Russell? Lewis? Alonso? Vettel? Notice 3 of those are also multiple WDC winners! That’s all you need to know about the future of F1..
Park
25th July 2022, 17:20
Interestingly, NO state-owned company is sponsoring Zhou, even more, CCTV( state tv station) don’t broadcast any race of this season.
David (@djarvis)
25th July 2022, 22:31
@ccpbioweapon
Quite a generalisation there. Russell was also privately educated and Lando obviously has the talent to be in f1 regardless of his upbringing.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th July 2022, 13:32
I am curious why Stroll was ahead of Vettel in the first place. He overtook Vettel on the first lap with surprising ease, as if Vettel was on cold tyres (which is unlikely with the high track temperature). Was Vettel too cautious in the first lap?