Aston Martin delays decision on Vettel until Friday

Aston Martin says it will decide on Friday whether Sebastian Vettel will race or not in this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Vettel, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week and was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg for F1's season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, has yet to return a negative test and remains in isolation at his home in Switzerland.

Aston Martin is therefore giving itself another 24 hours to make a final call on Vettel's status.

Super-sub Hulkenberg is present at Jeddah and ready to fill his countryman's seat for a second consecutive weekend if necessary.

At Sakhir, Hulkenberg outqualified Aston teammate Lance Stroll but the 34-year-old struggled on race day, which wasn't unexpected given his late call-up and his absence from F1 since his one-off with Team Silverstone at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.

• Read also: Schumacher says Stroll should perhaps 'find a different hobby'

"We can say he’s a semi-pro already in replacing others," said team boss Mick Krack, quoted by The Race. "But it was a very late call. With logistics and travel and all that matters.

"We had a seat fit at team base but then with all the technical options that you’re trying to develop, you put the reserve driver a bit on the side.

"So what happened is that on Friday morning, we had to recheck the seat, redo the whole thing.

"But Nico is super cool, he’s not making a fuss about it, he gets on with the job.

"And this was really good to have someone with this experience that knows about the limitations you have in such situations."

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