Lance Stroll felt he should have made it through to the top ten shootout along with Williams Martini Racing team-mate Felipe Massa, but missed out after losing grip in the final sector at the Sochi Autodrom.
The Canadian’s first two sectors of his final flying lap were good, and had he maximised his performance in the final sector, he felt that it was almost certain that he would have made it through, but ultimately missed out.
Stroll qualified twelfth but will move up to eleventh as a result of Carlos Sainz Jr’s penalty, ironically for hitting the Canadian in Bahrain, but the main thing the teenager wants to do is see the chequered flag for the first time in his Formula 1 career after three retirements in the opening three races.
“It was a bit unfortunate at the end as I think Q3 was possible, but I just missed out at the end of my lap in Q2,” said Stroll. “I didn’t get to do the warm up lap I wanted, and around here it is quite important to get the tyre working properly.
“I had a good start to the lap and then I lost a lot of grip in the last sector, made a couple of mistakes and just lost the rear, which wasn’t great. I was a couple of tenths up but didn’t manage to hold it. There is more in it.
“I think this weekend is quite tricky with tyres and getting them to work properly, but we can race from P12 (P11). It is a long race tomorrow, we will see what happens and hopefully luck is going to be a bit more on our side.”
