Lance Stroll recovered from a horrendous qualifying session on Saturday to pick up the final point in tenth place, and made clear the team needed to investigate the reasons behind their poor qualifying pace before next weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Both Williamses had been suffering from chronic oversteer in yesterday’s Q1 session, with Stroll lining up next to team-mate Felipe Massa for the race on the penultimate row of the grid.
“We just need to figure out what happened to us this weekend in qualifying and try to cure it for the next race,” he said.
The duo took advantage of a chaotic first corner that caused two retirements and sent Daniil Kvyat a lap down to climb into the points, the Canadian rookie holding steady despite multiple challengers for the final points position as the race progressed.
“It goes to show anything can happen in a race and it is not over on a Saturday,” he commented afterwards. “I am feeling very positive as I started 18th, finished 10th and picked up another point.
“It wasn’t an easy race, although the start was good and we managed to gain some places. I knew after the start we were in a good position, so it was just a matter of staying focused, not making any mistakes and saving the brakes and tyres towards the end of the race.
“First, there was Magnussen putting pressure on me and then at the end Palmer, but I just needed to defend as I know around here it is quite difficult to overtake.”
The next race in only a week’s time is Williams’ home race at Silverstone, where the team’s last podium came at the hands of Valtteri Bottas in the 2014 running of the event.
