Aston Martin will be relatively pleased with their sprint race in Sao Paulo, with Lance Stroll losing one position on the grid but Sebastian Vettel flying up the order from P13 to P9.
It nearly ended disastrously however, as their driver pairing shared a close shave on the run down to Turn 4, which could have very easily seen one, if not both of their drivers out of the race.
As both drivers hurtled down the DRS assisted straight, the German driver attempted and overtake on his teammate, but as he made his way past the left hand side of his teammate, Stroll moved over to squeeze Vettel onto the grass.
Vettel managed to renter the track without any accident and continued on the race as normal, but was clearly confused by the Canadian’s actions as all he said over the team radio was “OK.”
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Stroll was given a ten second penalty for the incident, but when asked after the race, Vettel refused to place the blame fully at the door of his teammate.
“It was tight, obviously we don’t see as well as you do on the camera,” he said.
“The gap closed and I was half off the track which was a bit hairy. But fortunately, I was able to rejoin.”
The German, who will be retiring after the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, has said that other than the incident with his teammate, he is happy with how the sprint race went for him, as he climbed the order to begin Sunday’s race in the point scoring positions.
“We were making progress, we started 13th and finished P9,” said the 35-year-old.
“I had a good start and then really didn’t know where to go, I was a bit stuck and then had a couple of opening laps with Daniel [Ricciardo], that was a lot of fun.
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“After, it was a bit close with Lance but I think we work together.
“It is tough, you lose time when you are fighting but I seemed to be stronger and then I was able to pass Esteban [Ocon] fairly comfortably and even caught Pierre [Gasly] and with a couple more laps I could have even overtaken Kevin [Magnussen] as well.”
Aston Martin will hope to avoid any similar incidents in the main race, as every point is crucial in their battle with Alfa Romeo for sixth in the championship.