The German used a longer opening stint in the race to move up the rankings and then benefited from fresh soft tires for the red flag restart to take second place behind race winner Sergio Perez.
Looking back over the course of the race from eleven on the grid, Vettel estimated that the early stages turned out to be critical, especially as he was able to start with a new soft tire rather than one that had been used during the second quarter.
“I think strategically it is of course always better to start earlier,” he said. “The new tire certainly didn’t hurt, as other people still had a few laps after qualifying.
“So it helped us to go longer, but we took the tires off really well and I think that was the secret plus the pace we had. I think in the race the car felt good and it was the key to getting ahead and chipping. ” Forward.”
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Vettel said the podium form came as a surprise, although the car felt pretty solid during practice in Baku.
“I mean, I’m over the moon,” he explained. “I think that’s great, a podium of course. We didn’t expect that when we came here.
“But on Friday, even though we weren’t anywhere, it felt good. I was very relaxed. We didn’t quite understand it yesterday. But today it’s even sweeter.”
Vettel also admitted that the podium felt particularly good because he had great difficulty getting used to the Aston Martin earlier in the year.
“I think it means a lot,” he said. “Of course. It was a tough start for us. I think it was a great race and we had good pace. That was the key.
“Of course I had a good start, made up a few positions and then looked after my tires as soon as everyone pitted.”
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