Listen to this article Vettel made his first 2022 race appearance after sitting out the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia rounds with COVID-19. With the four-time world champion already up against it after lacking so much seat time, he fell behind even further due to technical problems in Melbourne practice. Vettel had to park his AMR22 near the end of FP1 with a loss of power, which prompted an engine change that also saw him miss FP2. On Saturday he was restricted to just five laps before crashing out of FP3 and was then eliminated in Q1 after barely making it out at all, following an impressive repair job by the team. Early in Sunday’s race, Vettel and teammate Lance Stroll attempted to benefit from an early safety car to get a free stop for new tyres, but on lap 23 Vettel lost control on the high Turn 5 exit kerbs and smacked his nose into the wall on t …