Lance Stroll used his home run to pick up his third point of the season on Sunday. The Quebecer overtook Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the race in order to narrowly slip into the top 10.
Posted at 5:52 p.m.
“It’s going well. I’m very happy with that”, simply summed up the Aston Martin driver, with a smirk, after the race.
Stroll, who was leaving 18e on the starting grid, benefited from valuable help from his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, at the end of the race. The German, who had been running on hard tires for 37 laps, gave him free rein to attack Ricciardo, which he did successfully on 64e turn of 70.
“I had more speed on newer tires and we had Ricciardo in front. […] I was on new medium tires so I had more opportunities than [Sebastian] to beat the competition up front,” he explained.
“It’s a good team effort,” he continued. We had a good strategy. We are happy to score points. »
This is Stroll’s fourth career race in Montreal. The three times he crossed the finish line, he was in the points. We can say that the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit suits him. “It’s always special here,” he also mentioned, claiming to have felt the energy that came from the filled and noisy bleachers.
This is the third time Stroll has finished 10e this season. He couldn’t do better yet. His three points place him 18the rank in the driver standings, behind Williams’ Alexander Albon. His two pursuers, Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams), still have no points.
For his part, Vettel was finally the 12e to cross the finish line. Excluding his two retirements in Australia and Miami, it’s his worst result this season — he missed the first two due to COVID-19.
With this point amassed on Sunday, the son of billionaire Lawrence Stroll, however, allows Aston Martin to take the 8e rank among manufacturers with 16 points. The team was tied with Haas heading into the Canadian Grand Prix.
Find comfort
In any case, Aston Martin still has a lot of work ahead of it to improve its car, believes Stroll.
“It’s one of the toughest cars to drive I’ve ever driven in my career in terms of confidence,” he said.
“I think it was a bit better today, but it was still difficult. We have to continue to work so that I am more comfortable and more at ease in the car, because it is still difficult for me. […] There are still things the car does that surprise me. We must continue to work to find the comfortable place in which we were last year and the year before, when I was more comfortable and more confident. »
A memorable weekend
Nicholas Latifi’s race was like the last eight: the Torontonian didn’t even come close to fighting for a point.
The Williams driver, who was leaving 19e on the starting grid, concluded at 16e rank for the fifth time this season. He beat Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, while Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Mick Schumacher (Haas) had to give up along the way.
“We were lacking a lot of pace and we have to try to figure out why that’s the case at high and low fuel,” he said. We now have two weeks to try and do some analysis before going to Silverstone. Whatever the result, it was a memorable weekend. »
Memorable, because it was his first career race on Canadian soil. The 26-year-old driver was all smiles in every appearance in the paddocks and in front of the media this week.
“It was really great to finally have my first race at home,” he said. The support I felt from my family, friends and all the fans in the stands was incredible. »