Lance Stroll hailed his recovery drive at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as he picked up his second top 10 finish of the campaign.
Stroll endured a difficult build-up to the race after crashing in Friday’s second practice session before dropping out in Q1, the eighth successive time that he had failed to reach the next segment.
Stroll lined up from 14th place due to penalties for opponents and carved his way into the top 10, before losing out to Daniel Ricciardo due to a slow pit stop.
But the clash between Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat promoted Stroll back into the points and he came home in ninth place, maintaining his record of scoring points on each of his Baku starts.
Stroll’s result, allied with Sergio Perez’s sixth, lifted Racing Point to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Yeah, it was [a good recovery],” Stroll told Motorsport Week.
“I’m really pleased with the result, we got both cars in the points.
“It was another good start to the race, first stint we overtook quite a few cars. I think it was a Toro Rosso and a couple of other cars, Ricciardo.
“Unfortunately a slow pit stop meant Ricciardo managed to get us back there, but I was really happy with the car on the second stint and overtook some more cars.
“I was quite fortunate with the contact between Ricciardo and Kvyat, gained some places there, really happy with the car all afternoon and to pick up some points.”
Stroll added that his own slow start to the weekend meant he was still exploring reaching the limit during race trim.
“Unfortunately I was on the backfoot after the crash on Friday so I didn’t get as much running and get the feeling of the car coming alive beneath me and was still building up to it in the race,” he said.
“But it did feel really competitive when the car was working at its best, generally it’s a good track for us and has been over the years for Racing Point and Force India back in the day, still the case this year.
“Now we’re going into the European season everyone’s going to be bringing updates and we’ll keep developing the car all the way to the end of the season.”
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