Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team battled hard in pursuit of points in the 2022 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, only for events to go against Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg.
Nico and Lance ended the Grand Prix in 12th and 13th respectively at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Nico
Nico lined up 16th on the grid because of the pre-race withdrawal of Haas's Mick Schumacher and the retirement of Yuki Tsunoda before the Grand Prix began.
The German moved past the Guanyu Zhou after the Alfa Romeo driver’s attempted move on Daniel Ricciardo.
He then cleared the Williams of Alex Albon before settling into a longer first stint on a set of used Hard tyres.
Saudi Arabia Grand Prix
Go inside the story of our 2022 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix and hear from Lance, Nico and Team Principal Mike Krack. Discover the data underpinning our races and more in our comprehensive race report.
The arrival of a Safety Car on lap 16 of 50 following Nicolas Latifi's crash hindered the team’s planned strategy of a long run.
"We put together a clean race, but unfortunately the events and opportunities did not really go our way," said Nico.
The first Safety Car period was unhelpful because we were running a longer first stint on the Hard tyre – so that compromised our race.”
Not to be deterred, Nico climbed to ninth as the first wave of pitstops took place and defended resolutely once the race returned to green flag conditions.
Despite falling just outside the top 10, Nico remained in touch in case of any further twists to the race.
We gave it everything out there, but points were out of reach.
Running for as long as possible in the hope of another Safety Car period that never came, Nico pitted on lap 37 to take on a set of used Mediums.
A late Virtual Safety Car for stoppages on track was not enough to regain significant ground, meaning Nico ended the race in 12th.
"It was a demanding race, but I am happy with my performance considering my limited experience with the car," said Nico.
"We gave it everything out there, but points were out of reach."
Lance
Lance had also spent significant portions of the race on the fringes of points contention.
The team opted to split strategies between Lance and Nico, meaning the former began the Grand Prix on a set of used Medium tyres.
Benefitting from the three-place grid penalty for Daniel Ricciardo in qualifying, as well as the non-starting Schumacher and Tsunoda, Lance lined up in 12th.
Lance made up ground at the start and defended resolutely from Ricciardo initially, before settling into 14th once the recovering Lewis Hamilton had moved past.
Like Nico, the timing of the Safety Car proved challenging as the Canadian had pitted just three laps earlier, preventing him from making up significant ground.
We will keep working hard to find more performance in the car for the coming races.
But Lance continued to fight hard in the midfield and climbed from 17th all the way to 10th by the time the late VSC arrived.
Once again, conditions of the race worked against Lance. Looking to defend his 10th place finish, Lance was disadvantaged by Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen running close behind on fresher, softer compounds.
Despite a robust defence of the position from Hamilton, Lance was unable to prevent them from moving past.
"We did our best to try to hold on for a points finish after the late Virtual Safety Car period," said Lance.
"But unfortunately two cars behind us were on a faster and fresher tyre compound, so there was not much we could do."
His race then had a final sour note when Alex Albon made a dive into Turn One and collided with Lance's AMR22, resigning him to 13th.
"There is still a long season ahead of us, so we will keep working hard to find more performance in the car for the coming races," added Lance.
After a challenging double-header, the team’s ready to regroup and determined to make progress in Australia.
Team Principal Mike Krack said: "Obviously we are disappointed not to have scored any points today, but from here we will travel back to Silverstone, where we will work hard to improve our car for the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks' time."
All in. All welcome. All celebrated. Sign up to open up a world of I / AM benefits and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
