Lance Stroll had one of his best FIA European Formula 3 Championship races of 2015 so far around the streets of Pau, with the Canadian picking up fourth place in the final race of the weekend after a number of impressive overtaking manoeuvres.
The Ferrari Driver Academy driver and the 2014 Italian Formula 4 Champion, driving for Prema Powerteam, was a man on a mission during Sunday’s finale, working his way from tenth to ultimately finish fourth.
“I had a very good start,” said Stroll. “I immediately gained one position to P8. After that, I tried to overtake the driver in P7 but I locked up and ended up losing a couple of positions so I was back to P10. Then I worked my way back through the field.
“I overtook [Alessio] Lorandi and [Arjun] Maini, and also got a bit lucky as well with [Markus] Pommer and [Alexander] Albon who had separate issues. With 10 to go I was in P5 and I also gained one more position ending up fourth with Jake [Dennis] losing positions due to his broken suspension. It was a great comeback.”
His first two races were not as good for the Canadian; a tenth place in race two followed on from a ninth in race one. He was relatively content with his performance in race one after having so little running in the dry due to the inclement weather around the French track.
“I made a good start,” said Stroll. “I also felt the car better than yesterday [in practice] and I was able to overtake other cars. We finished P9 which was a good result considering the lack of experience on the dry.”
Despite three points finishes, Stroll was overall disappointed with his weekend, admitting he was compromised by his qualifying efforts, but is hoping for better next time out at Monza, a track he knows well from Italian F4.
“Overall it wasn’t the best weekend,” concluded Stroll. “It was difficult to adapt to the street circuit right away with a not ideal qualifying, but we scored points in every race even if it was difficult to overtake on this street circuit.
“It was a strong finish to the weekend. I am now looking forward to the next weekend at Monza.”
