Sebastian Vettel (P12): 7/10
Saturday was notable for a demonstration of Sebastian Vettel's best Chewbacca impression as he vented his frustration with a long cry of anguish after missing out on the final round of qualifying by just five hundredths of a second from Carlos Sainz, who would go on to claim a front row spot on the grid just minutes later. By such small margins do major events turn in Formula 1, even if Seb owed his loss to a bout of traffic on his final run. When the race got underway on Sunday he was mugged on the first lap by his old team mate Kimi Raikkonen, but then things settled down and he was able to run in 11th through to lap 14 when pit stops for those ahead raised him briefly into the top ten. After a lengthy first stint on medium tyres, Vettel then dropped behind Raikkonen again but got past the Alfa Romeo on lap 43, and then quickly picked off Esteban Ocon and George Russell. Then the rain started to fall and Aston Martin didn't react quick enough to protect a potential points finish. The situation was exacerbated by accidental contact with his Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll. "When the rain came in the final few laps the race became a lottery. It felt like a 50/50 call as to whether we should pit for Intermediate tyres. It felt like the rain would stay light, so we stayed out, but then it became much heavier and caught us out," he reported. "It did not go our way today."
Lance Stroll (P11): 7.5/10
While Sebastian Vettel looked the stronger of the two Aston Martin drivers on Friday, Lance Stroll took over when it came to qualifying and the Canadian put in a strong performance to cruise into the final round and secure seventh place on the grid while Vettel narrowly missed the cut. A good start saw Stroll tangling with Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso for position, and by the end of the first lap he was up to fourth place. He was the first driver of the day to pit on lap 12, exchanging his starter set of mediums for a set of hard tyres to carry him through the rest of the race, but the timing of the stop was off and he never regained the lost positions. By the time the rain started to fall he was down in ninth place having been passed by Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. He made a prompt decision to switch to intermediate tyres but then accidentally clashed with Vettel which cost both men any chance they had of points. "In hindsight, stopping one lap earlier for Intermediates could have changed our race," he said. "I made the call for us to stay out and try to make it to the end, so it is down to me. Of the contact with Vettel, he commented: "It became very slippery out there and I did not see Sebastian alongside me."
