On Track

Race recap: Sebastian and Lance battle hard in São Paulo GP

Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team's Sebastian Vettel fell shy of a top 10 performance at the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix.

Though Sebastian made progress during the race, an ill-timed Virtual Safety Car impacted the German's strategy as he narrowly missed out on points in Brazil, while Lance was forced to retire after contact caused damage his car.

Sebastian

Sebastian started the race from ninth on used Medium tyres, and with a strong start, moved up to sixth, overtaking Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris on lap one.

After fending off a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton behind, Sebastian slipped down to seventh at the start of lap two before the Safety Car was deployed on lap six following a collision between team-mate Lance and Yuki Tsunoda.

Race report

São Paulo Grand Prix

Uncover the inside story of the São Paulo Grand Prix with our in-depth race report. Discover the data underpinning our race and hear from Lance, Sebastian and CEO & Team Principal as they review our weekend at Interlagos.

Get up to speed

Obtaining a clean getaway when the race was resumed on lap 10, Sebastian maintained position until a subsequent Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 12.

Slipping down to 12th following the restart, Sebastian regained sixth as race strategies unfolded and pitted for used Hard tyres on lap 28 to rejoin in 15th.

"I thought we had a good opportunity to score points today, but the Virtual Safety Cars did not help us and cost me a position to Esteban [Ocon]," reflected Sebastian. "Without that, it would have been a different race."

I thought we had a good opportunity to score points, but the Virtual Safety Cars did not help us.

Sebastian Vettel

From here, Sebastian again climbed through the ranks to contend for points, pitting from 10th on lap 55 of 71 for new Mediums.

Rejoining in 11th place, Sebastian began chasing Lando Norris in the run to the flag, falling just short of a points finish.

"We still tried everything we could and chose the two-stop strategy, rather than the one-stop," said Sebastian.

"We were close to scoring a point in the end against Lando [Norris] and we were catching him in the final laps, but it was not quite enough."

Lance

Like Sebastian, Lance also gained ground at the start, moving from 14th on the grid to 12th by overtaking Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi.

On lap six, the Canadian was struck by Yuki Tsunoda when the AlphaTauri driver made a miscalculated dive into Turn One.

With damage to his car and the Safety Car deployed to clear up debris, Lance set out to recover his race despite running with extensive damage on his AMR21.

It is disappointing to retire, but this weekend has made me even more determined to finish well in Qatar.

Lance Stroll

"After making up some ground yesterday, I think we had a good chance to score points today," explained Lance. 

"After a strong start, [Yuki] Tsunoda made contact with me in Turn One. He was on the Softs whereas I was on the Mediums, so at that stage he was faster.

"I think his move was desperate and he was way too optimistic."

On lap 22, Lance swapped his race-starting Medium tyres for a set of used Hards to rejoin in 19th before fighting forward to 12th.

As the race continued, the performance of Lance's car continued to deteriorate and after losing pieces on lap 30, retired from the race on lap 47 of 71.

"That contact damaged my car and from there more pieces were falling off, which meant that the pace got worse and we were just going backwards.

"It is disappointing to retire, but this weekend has made me even more determined to finish well in Qatar next weekend."