Sebastian Vettel had little cause for cheer after a weekend to forget on his return to racing in Australia.
The Aston Martin driver missed the first two races of the season after contracting Covid-19. But having driven the team’s AMR22 in a shakedown and two pre-season tests, he didn’t have any concerns about getting back up to speed before the weekend began.
“We had a decent test, we had more tests than last year in a way,” he said before practice began on Friday. “It’s not too long ago, but for sure I missed the race rhythm. It’s obviously a disadvantage not to have had those two races and race with these cars but I think it will be okay. I’ve done this before, so should be okay.”
However he covered just 18 laps that day as he was sidelined by a power unit failure at the end of first practice which prevented him from participating in the second. He also fell foul of the stewards, who fined him for riding a moped onto the track to get back to the pits.
Matters took a…