Aston Martin's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix got off to a rocky start with both cars suffering from overheating brakes before the race even began, an issue Otmar Szafnauer admits they are still trying to clear up. With rain falling down at Imola prior to the start, the British team were sent into a frenzy when Lance Stroll drove through the pit lane with smoke billowing out of his rear tyres. Mechanics were forced to quickly rectify the problem in an attempt to get the Canadian and teammate Sebastian Vettel onto the grid, with the German eventually starting from the pit lane as time ran out. In the end Stroll managed an eighth place finish while Vettel retired in the closing laps due to a gearbox problem, with Szafnauer stating the team are looking into what caused the brake issues. "We still don't know," Szafnauer told RacingNews365.com and other members of the media. "We'll get all the data on the laps to grid. "What happened was we overheated the rear brakes and the laps to grid weren't at the at the normal pace that we usually go so we didn't get the airflow. Even with that, the settings were such that they shouldn't have caught fire, but they did unfortunately. "So we overheated them, but we don't know why and how." Aston Martin currently sit sixth in the constructors' standings with five points after two races, but Szafnauer was encouraged by the team's race pace in Italy. "We got to look really hard at one lap pace, it looks like the race pace is a little bit better," Szafnauer added. "I think Lance did a brilliant job to come home seven [dropped to eighth after penalty]. Unfortunately Seb had the gearbox issue, and also the penalty, so it didn't really help. "But we'll look through all the data, and we'll work hard to try and claw it back."
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