Vettel delighted with his best result of the season in Baku

Sebastian Vettel had initially experienced a peculiar start to the season. Absent from the first two races due to Covid-19, the German made his return in Melbourne and worried many, making consecutive errors on a track he knows perfectly well. However, since then, the four-time world champion has awakened and manages to extract from his AMR 22 what Lance Stroll is unable to find.

8th at Imola, 11th at Barcelona, and 10th at Monaco, when Vettel finishes a race, he is either in the points or never far away. This weekend in Baku, the German arrived at a circuit he enjoys, at least in terms of his results. Since 2016 and the introduction of the Azerbaijani layout to the calendar, he had never finished outside the top 4, including a podium with Aston Martin last season.

9th in qualifying, Vettel was then able to benefit from the retirements ahead of him to secure a very impressive 6th place, his best result of the season, with an AMR 22 that didn’t seem capable of it. « I think sixth is really good, we are very happy with the result,” declares Vettel after the race. »

Despite being satisfied with the outcome, the former Ferrari driver also regrets his mistake during his overtaking attempt on Esteban Ocon, which cost him valuable seconds. After that, I think I had already overtaken Esteban but a bit too late because I was sure he would fight for the position and I wasn’t confident [about taking the turn] so I took the escape route and lost a lot of time. Without that moment, I think we could have had a battle for P5 in our hands, but nevertheless, I think it’s a very good result.

This weekend marks the return of the Canadian Grand Prix after being absent since 2019. In the last edition, Sebastian Vettel lost the victory due to a penalty in favor of Lewis Hamilton. A different era.