Sebastian Vettel led Aston Martin to their first podium ever, in an eventful race. He ended in a rather surprising second place after starting from P11, knocked out of Q3 for only three cents. 

This, however, allowed him to start the race on a fresh set of soft tyres, and to have another spare set to use after the race restart, which helped him in securing his position and scoring the fastest lap

"Ha ha ha ha ha haaaa! Yeees, yes yes, yes, yes. Great job! That's a podium man, that's a wrap! Thank you guys, car was amazing today!"#SV5 💚 pic.twitter.com/4n9zzQ9jWd

— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) June 6, 2021

Vettel highlighted the strategical importance that his tyre management had in the race during his post-race interview: "I think strategy-wise obviously it's always better to start further up. The new tyre for sure didn't hurt, because other people had a couple of laps on from qualifying."

He also pointed out the good feeling he had with the car, and the pace, shown also by his teammate Lance Stroll, who unluckily suffered from a crash due to tyre failure:

"So it helped us to go longer, but we really preserve the tyres well and I think that was the secret, plus the pace that we had. I think in the race the car felt good and it was the key to keep progressing and chipping forward."

Vettel added that the podium was unexpected, especially since yesterday's qualifying struggles:

"I'm over the moon. I think this is great, obviously a podium. We didn't expect that when we came here. But already on Friday, even though we were nowhere, it felt good. I was quite relaxed. Yesterday, we didn't quite get it. But today is even sweeter."