It was an up and down home race for Aston Martin: Friday and Saturday smiled at Sebastian Vettel, who qualified in P10 and improved his starting position in the Sprint Qualifying, lining up on Sunday in P8. During the race the German driver spun, damaging his car up to the point he was forced to retire in the final laps.

His teammate Lance Stroll had quite the opposite weekend: barely out of Q1, he didn't advance much in the Sprint Qualifying and began his race in P14. He ended the race in Silverstone in P8, completing the most overtakes among all the drivers for his best seasonal result, joint with Monaco and the Austrian GP.

 

An excellent job from @lance_stroll today, gaining six places - the most of any driver.

Sadly, a tough day for #SV5 ended in retirement due to an engine overheating issue on his car.

See what the team had to say after a mixed day at @SilverstoneUK. ⬇️#F1 #BritishGP

— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) July 18, 2021

The Canadian driver, in his fifth F1 season, was satisfied with his driving in the race, and with his car's performance after difficult days, as he said after the race:

“Yeah I am pleased, it was by far the most positive day this weekend. We got a good balance in the car which we didn’t really have throughout the whole weekend, and a good start which set up my race… It was a pretty frustrating weekend up until then."

Key moments in his quest for points were the start and the restart after the red flags, in which he managed to pass many drivers:

"From where we were starting and the challenges we had this weekend I think it was a good race. Two good starts and making up some positions set us up for a good race."

With the new race format Aston Martin had less time to solve the issues brought up in the first practice session, with the part ferme rules in force on Saturday already, but in the end the British racing team succeeded in giving Stroll a car he felt good while driving:

“We had some issues with balance and some other things. Power as well. So a lot of things and we were just chasing our tail after a challenging FP1 and then qualifying. [On Sunday] we finally got the car in a happy place which helps.”

Aston Martin Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was  pleased with Stroll's display of his abilities, but had higher hopes for the team's first home GP since the rebranding:

“We had hoped to be coming away from our home Grand Prix with more than the four points we eventually scored, but those four points came our way as a result of a superb drive by Lance, who made up six places this afternoon to convert a P14 grid slot to a P8 finish. No driver made up more places."