After a troubled start to his life at Aston Martin, Sebastian Vettel finally scored his first points with Team Silverstone and he did it on merit with a strong run to P5 in Sunday's Monaco GP.
From the outset of his race weekend in the Principality, Vettel appeared to have taken a step forward, and the German driver put his progress to good use in a race which he started 7th, just behind Mercedes Lewis Hamilton.
But a longer first stint relative to his midfield rivals allowed him to overcut Hamilton but also AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly, after which he comfortably held his own in P5 all the way to the checkered flag.
And for good measure, teammate Lance Stroll added more points to Aston's tally in Monaco by finishing P8.
"It was a good day, also to have both cars in the points," said Vettel. "We have waited for that.
"A very important day for all of us, for the team and the guys. A good message also for everyone back in the factory.
"Monaco always has the potential to be a special race and it came our way this weekend."
Vettel hopes that his first top ten finish with Aston will spur him and the team on to more points in the upcoming Azerbaijan GP in Baku in two weeks.
"It’s a long year," said Vettel. "It was probably a question of time. Fifth for sure is a very strong result for us.
"We’ll take the points and hopefully we can be similarly strong in Baku.
"It’s a street circuit, even though the nature is very different, because it’s very fast with one long straight line – but we’ll see what we can do."
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