Vett⛦el enjoyed his best qualifying of the se🍬ason as he progressed into Q3 for the first time since the British Grand Prix last year.

Despite running in te🅰nth for much of the first stint, Vettel d🌞ropped back when he switched to the medium tyres, suffering from graining.

The German ultimately finished in 13th, having🎶 been overcut by F⛎ernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, while he was overtaken on-track by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

Vettel did let teammate Lance Stroll through, before being allowed back past on the final lap after the Canadian was unable to gౠet past Giovinazz🦩i for 12th.

“[It] was quite a busy and difficult race with a very long stint on the medium tyres,” Vettel said. “I think after 10 laps it was difficult to really keep close to the group ahead [featuring McLaren’s Lando Norris, the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly] and we just couldn’t stay with them and u🙈ltimately lost out.🧔 

“It look🐼s like overall, we just didn’t have enough pace today to score points.”

Vettel believes Aston Martin didn’t have the pace to score points, even if he did switch to the hards, rather than mediums for the second stint at Po𒈔rtimao.

“I think we understand the car better and better but we are lacking a bit of speed, so we need to work on that,” Vettel added. “I don’t t👍hink we could have done anything different with the strategy, but overall, we did not have enough pace or consistency to hold onto the group fighting for points.

“On the positive side,🉐 I will have some new parts on my car next week, which we feel are a step in the right direction. But the real priority is ♚to have a clean Saturday, which is the key to a better Sunday.”