Lance Stroll delivered on home soil last weekend.
The Canadian and native Montrealer continued his streak of points at his home race, this time finishing an honourable P7 at the flag, after qualifying P9, even finishing P4 in FP3 and P3 in FP2. After a race that was hit with all sorts of weather, tyre changes and adapting to a changing circuit, the 25-year-old and Aston Martin will certainly take 7th place.
After dropping behind Yuki Tsunoda who did not pit under the first safety car, Stroll overtook the Japanese driver later in the race to get P7 back.
He took the time after the chequered flag to discuss how his home race went for him, saying that it was relief to get to the flag in such changeable and tricky conditions throughout the 70-lap event.
“It was probably one of the most difficult races I can remember in a long time, in terms of conditions and being on the right tyre at the right time, making the right calls, predicting the forecast, all these things.
“And just as a track in general, it just bites you so quick when you get it a little bit wrong with the walls and stuff on the exit.
“So we managed to get to the chequered flag.
“And [we were] on the right tyre throughout the race and [had] the right strategy and stayed out of trouble, which is good.”
Stroll had at the moment as he went straight at the chicane at one point.
“I went, I had a lock-up in (turn) 13, but went straight and saved it. But yeah, super tricky conditions throughout the race.”
While this result — along with a 6th place for teammate Fernando Alonso — seems promising for Aston Martin, Stroll claims that the reason for their upturn in form at the weekend was track-specific.
“Yeah, I mean, the track definitely suited our car.
“We’re quick in a straight-line, not so much downforce, efficient, good DRS switch, all these things, which is good for Canada.
“We capitalised on a weekend where the car was pretty strong all weekend.
“And we’ll see in Barcelona, a very different kind of track, but we’ll see what we can do there.”
The AMR24 has proven to be tricky to drive since Miami in particular, and Stroll says Aston Martin face a lot of work to get on top of their issues, as well as adding downforce to the car with the top four teams comfortably ahead.
“No, I think we still have a lot of work to do to sort out the balance limitations, and keep putting downforce on it, too.”
