Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team's Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel battled hard in the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort but were unable to recover from qualifying setbacks.
Red flags and traffic had consigned Lance and Sebastian to starting 12th and 17th respectively, but rivals' pitlane penalties lifted the latter into 15th on the grid.
But with overtaking extremely difficult at Zandvoort, it would be a challenging race for the duo.
Lance
Lance launched off the line and immediately battled the Williams of George Russell, edging ahead into 11th through the Tarzan hairpin.
Russell would hit back, and Lance narrowly lost the position at the Turn Three banking, settling into a train of cars.
Having started on a set of new Softs, like the cars around him, there were few opportunities for Lance to move back ahead, despite remaining well within DRS range.
Race report
Get the full story from the Dutch Grand Prix and discover the data behind Sebastian and Lance's races. Dive into the facts and figures behind the Zandvoort race and hear from Sebastian, Lance and Otmar.
"I made an OK start off the line, but I was not able to make up any places,” reflected Lance.
"After that, I could only really follow George [Russell] for the majority of the race in a train of cars. Without a significant tyre delta, it is almost impossible to overtake here."
Lance extended his opening stint to 27 laps, but he pitted on the same lap as the Williams driver, meaning he was unable to gain a place through strategy.
"We will look into the strategy to see what else we could have done, but I do not think we could have done a lot differently,” added Lance."
But Russell did earn a five-second time penalty, effectively lifting Lance ahead, although with the car still in front and preventing him from showing his stronger race pace.
Zandvoort is a great track to drive, and it's definitely more of a Saturday circuit. I am happy to see it on the calendar, but perhaps there's ways to look into improving overtaking on a Sunday.
Lance was now on the Hard tyres and down in 16th, but swiftly gained ground, notably dispatching Alfa Romeo's Robert Kubica at Tarzan.
He also gained places when Kubica's team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi pitted for a second time, and the Canadian moved into 12th when Russell pitted on the penultimate lap of the Grand Prix.
"We can see from the race just how important qualifying is, and, unfortunately, we were compromised yesterday, so we had it all to do today," said Lance.
"Zandvoort is a great track to drive, and it is definitely more of a Saturday circuit. I am happy to see it on the calendar, but perhaps there are ways to look into improving overtaking on a Sunday.
"For now, we will reset and focus on Monza."
Sebastian
Like Lance, Sebastian was unable to make ground at the start and instead focused on defending from McLaren's Lando Norris.
The four-time World Champion moved to a two-stop strategy, pitting on the 10th lap of the 72 to move onto a set of new Hard tyres.
Returning to the track in 18th, Sebastian overtook the Haas of Nikita Mazepin and gained a further two places when Nicholas Latifi and Giovinazzi pitted.
After making some early progress by running an alternative strategy, Sebastian was hampered after being unable to pass Kubica, particularly at the Turn Three banking.
"I had to take a lot of risks when overtaking, but if you qualify out of position, it is difficult to come back," said Sebastian.
He would make his second stop on lap 44 for a new set of Medium tyres, and began to cycle his way back up the field as others made their stops.
When I did have some clean air, in the final part of the race, the pace was very competitive, and I found a good rhythm.
The retirement of Yuki Tsunoda, and Russell's late issues, helped Sebastian move up to 13th, where he crossed the line behind team-mate Lance.
"When I did have some clean air, in the final part of the race, the pace was very competitive, and I found a good rhythm,” added Sebastian."
Despite a challenging Dutch Grand Prix, Sebastian retains the lead in the Crypto.com Overtake Award.
"It was one of those days which shows that, if you start further back, it is really hard to recover, especially on a track where overtaking is so tricky," said Sebastian.
"From where we started, we had to try to do something different with the strategy, and I was happy with our approach."
The championship heads into the final race of the triple-header this weekend, and Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team is already focusing on the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
"[Monza is] a very different kind of challenge, and a welcome opportunity for us to try to improve on today's performance," said CEO & Team Principal, Otmar Szafnauer.
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