Despite a successful strategy and a good stroke of luck, Lance Stroll was unable to collect his first points of the season on Sunday at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, finishing 12and rank.
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The Quebecer took the start of the 19and position after qualifying marked by his clash with his compatriot Nicholas Latifi (Williams) for which he was held responsible. After a few laps, he took advantage of a neutralization to stop, twice rather than once, and thus get rid of the medium rubber in a few meters to prioritize the tough.
Losing only one spot in the process, he then climbed the ranks during other riders’ stops. A second intervention from the safety car gave him a less penalizing third pit stop while his rivals were idling, so he found himself inside the top 10 at the end of the event.
His car simply didn’t have the pace, however, and despite brilliantly defending for a few loops at the expense of Valtteri Bottas, he ultimately slipped in 12and square.
“We didn’t quite have the pace for the points today, although we were able to defend a top-10 position late in the race,” Stroll said in a statement from his Aston Martin team. I think we got the right idea with our strategy by running the majority of the race on hard tyres, but we will look at the data and see what else we can learn.
continue the work
Unauthorized course changes at the end of a straight in front of Pierre Gasly also earned him a five-second penalty which had no effect on his final classification.
The five-second penalty was frustrating, although it didn’t change our final race position. I caught up [Bottas] after the virtual safety car and I gained a place, so it was frustrating to receive a penalty.
Despite everything, this 12and position represents a step forward for Aston Martin and almost an unexpected result given Stroll’s starting position. It was notably made possible by the mechanics, who had to repair his car twice after practice and qualifying. They also refurbished teammate Sebastian Vettel’s once over the weekend.
And while Vettel had to give up after hitting the wall, Stroll wants everyone in the team to keep pushing in the right direction.
“I also want to thank the team once again: everyone did a great job fixing the cars this weekend,” he said. We will keep our heads up and use our resources to try to squeeze more out of the car in the races to come.”
The fourth race of the season will be the Emilia-Romagna GP, held on the legendary Imola circuit, in two weeks. Aston Martin is the only team still looking for a first point this year.