Lance Stroll achieved the first finish of his Formula 1 career during Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, but felt his eleventh place finish might have been a point’s finish had he not spun on the opening lap.
The Williams Martini Racing driver had made a good start to jump into the top ten but lost control over the kerbs and lost control as he battled for position later in the lap, falling to fourteenth.
Despite this he showed good pace and recovered to finish eleventh ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, but he was content to finally see the chequered flag after three failures to finish in the opening three races of the year.
“It was so unfortunate. I had a really good start and think I was around P8 at one point, and then I got squeezed on the kerb, there wasn’t much grip and the car just got away from me,” said Stroll. “I knew I didn’t have any damage, but I fell to the back and it was just one of those things that happens.
“After that, it was a difficult first stint because I had that spin and then had to spin the car round to keep going, and I overheated the rears quite a bit so I had poor grip.
“But then I recovered a bit on the second stint and saw the chequered flag for the first time, which was nice. It was a bit disappointing with the spin, as I think it could have been quite a bit better, but we will take our first finish.”
