Sebastian Vettel got all teary-eyed in Thursday's second practice session in Monaco, but it wasn't due to the emotion of returning to the streets of the Principality for the first time in two years.
The Aston Martin driver suffered an ocular issue midway through FP2 that impaired his vision but fortunately not his performance as he clocked in among the top 10 at the end of the day.
"I don’t know what was going on!" said Vettel, whose left eye teared during a qualifying simulation.
"I had the first runs and something got into my eye, and then it got worse on the second run…
"It wasn’t bleeding, but I said [on the radio that] either I’m emotional, or something else is going on because it was just tears and tears and I was blinking the whole lap. Not ideal on a track like this."
His Scuderia crew jokingly handed Vettel a makeshift eye patch after the session to keep him protected for the remainder of the weekend!
"So, the team was quite nice, and they made me this," laughed the German as he sported the pirate-like patch. "So, I probably think I’ll keep that, and it will keep me safe for the rest of the weekend."
The episode still allowed the Aston driver to charge around Monaco like a one-eyed bandit and conclude his day P10, two spots lower than his position in FP1, but ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.
"I was quite happy," said Vettel, a two-time winner in Monaco. "We got into a rhythm quickly, and then as I said, in the afternoon, lost a bit of [vision], but overall it’s okay.
"It will be tight, it’s always tight here and it’s obviously tight in the midfield and hopefully we can be at the forward end.
"Hopefully we can keep that up and get everything together," he added. "It’s all about Saturday afternoon, which is not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, so a bit of time.
"We tried some bits, and like Monaco usually, you have a bit of stop and go, not getting the laps, that’s for everyone. It will matter on Saturday afternoon to get everything in that one lap."
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