The two single-seaters of the Aston Martin team, which had to retire three weeks ago at their last outing in Monza, not only reached the finish line, their drivers also scored points at the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday.
• Also read: Bold strategy costs Lance Stroll seats
• Also read: Singapore F1 Grand Prix: encouraging day for Lance Stroll
In sixth (56 seconds behind winner Sergio Pérez), Lance Stroll achieved his best result of the season and brought his points tally to 13. This consoling result also allows him to move up from 18th to 15th in the standings.
His team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished his career in eighth place after bravely defending himself against Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, although he was beaten by the Dutchman’s threat at the end of the race.
A first in six months
This is the first time that Aston Martin’s two team colors have managed to score points at the same event since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, held in Italy last April.
“It feels so good to get sixth place. Especially since Seb [Vettel] had a nice day too. We scored a lot of points and it’s a great reward for all the members of our team who work very hard,” Stroll said as he got out of the car.
The team around his father Lawrence increases its total number of points to 37 and jumps from 9th to 7th place in the constructors’ championship ahead of AlphaTauri (34), Haas (34) and Williams (6).
Poor Latifi
Nicholas Latifi has been talked about for the wrong reasons…again. To defend his 17th place from Zhou Guanyu, he pushed his opponent against the wall in the seventh round. Both had to give up after the collision.
“I didn’t see that he was there. So I took my usual trajectory to approach the next turn. I didn’t know he was in the blind spot of my car,” said the Canadian, who will lose his bike with the Williams team at the end of the season.
Latifi admitted his responsibility and his behavior did not go unnoticed by the International Automobile Federation commissioners, who handed down a penalty of five places on the grid for next Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
But that won’t change much for the Torontonian, who is used to starting at the back of the grid.
Gasly confirmed soon?
Three bucket seats are still available for 2023, but the most coveted could, unsurprisingly, be entrusted to Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who will therefore leave the AlphaTauri team to join his compatriot Esteban Ocon at Alpine.
The news would be confirmed in the next few days.