After a quick exit in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in which he clipped the inside wall of turn 22 resulting in a firm impact with the outside one, Lance Stroll bounced back with a solid sixth place in the Australian Grand Prix. Outqualifying and (eventually) finishing ahead of his two-time World Champion teammate Fernando Alonso, it was a pretty decent result for the Canadian. Or as he himself summarised: “Solid race and happy to pick up some points.”
The race tactics were clearly determined by tyre life, as the degradation turned out to be more than expected.
“Yeah, it was definitely a high degradation race,” Stroll confirmed.
He had decent pace in the final stint, but unfortunately for him he had to let George Russell go. In the end he got the position after the Englishman crashed in turn 6, and he gained another after Alonso received a penalty for his so-called erratic driving.
“Yeah, I think [I had a decent pace]. I mean, not as good as the Mercedes though. George was quicker throughout the race and he pulled away. But we’ve got some work to do, we’ve got to keep pushing.
“I think we covered for Hamilton,” the one-time polesitter explained about his early first pit stop. “I think he started soft. It was, [I] guess, hard on tyres today. I mean a lot of degradation. So we’re looking after the tyres and a pretty relaxed race, you know, not much action. But good to pick up points.”
Stroll had once again a great getaway, coming through ahead of Yuki Tsunoda. When asked whether he trains his starts or whether he does something special, his answer was underwhelmingly simple: “It’s better to get off the line fast than slow, so I try and get off fast.
“Just dump it, floor it. That’s it.”
