Aston Martin: Vettel still uncertain for Saudi Arabian GP

Aston Martin is still uncertain whether Sebastian Vettel will be able to return to the grid for this week's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.

The four-time world champion was sidelined from the Bahrain Grand Prix after testing positive last week for Covid-19, which forced Aston to draft in F1 super-sub Nico Hulkenberg.

Vettel's seven-day isolation period in Bahrain should theoretically allow the German to travel to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, assuming he returns a negative Covid test.

"He was participating in the debrief," Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack told the media after Sunday's race in Bahrain.

"He was sounding less rough than he was sounding a couple of days ago, but we don't know – we need to see how he goes for the next days. We hope that he will be back soon."

Saudi Arabia has lifted all of its Covid restrictions which would ensure Vettel's safe entry if the Aston Martin driver is indeed free of the coronavirus.

But Krack pointed out that Vettel would still be required to follow both the country's protocols and the team's own procedures.

"[It's] a bit of both, but to be honest I am not 100% aware of the Saudi regulations," Krack said. "If he has a negative test, it will be easy. Better to get it now than in two weeks' time."

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Meanwhile, Hulkenberg will remain in the wings in Saudia Arabia this week, just in case his services are needed once again.

"I'm just going anyway on standby and as a reserve," said the Hulk. "And I guess we'll find out on Thursday or Friday."

Hulkenberg impressively outqualified Lance Stroll on Saturday, but the German driver admitted that his return to the fray on race day after a 15-month absence wasn't an easy task.

"It was difficult, very difficult, in combat mode," he said. "The beginning was okay. But I was just hanging on, it was tough for me.

"Once you're out of that mode of just running with new, fresh tyres and know the limitations become more, you have to manage and understand the car a lot more. So that was difficult.

"[It was a] big learning experience today. So we went OK, I think then I tried to overtake someone, outbraked myself a bit into Turn 1. And from there onwards, it was kind of a downward spiral.

"I got lapped quite soon, and you just fall back and back more and more. But yeah, it was what it was."

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