As the Silverstone squad enjoyed a surprise upturn in form at Austin's Circuit of the Americas, Vettel and teammate Lance Stroll were competing for the best of the rest spot in the early stages of Sunday's United States Grand Prix.
But as Stroll took himself out of the race by colliding with Alpine's Fernando Alonso, which yielded the Canadian a three-place grid penalty for Mexico, Vettel's race also nearly came undone due to a slow second pitstop.
