Lance Stroll had his best qualifying of 2018 around the Baku Street Circuit today, only just missing out on making it into Q3.
The Williams Martini Driver finished the qualifying session eleventh quickest, but a penalty for ninth placed Nico Hulkenberg means that he will now line up tenth on the grid tomorrow. The Williams team are yet to score a point in the 2018 season, and so Stroll will be hoping to change this in what is set up to be a highly unpredictable race.
“I am really happy with that,” Stroll said of his qualifying performance.
“We have obviously made a step forward this weekend compared to the last couple of events, but on the other hand it’s a little disappointing not to get into Q3 by such a small margin. However, I am still very happy with the job we have done and a big thank you to the team. It might have been possible, but tough to throw a Red Bull out of there.
“It was such a difficult qualifying with the yellow flags in Q1 and I never did a lap until the last second on old tyres, so I was lucky to scrape through, and then happy with my lap in Q2.”
The nature of the Baku circuit, with it’s tight corners and low margin for error, means that the order is likely to be mixed up in tomorrow’s race, as it was last year when Stroll took a surprise podium. The Canadian thinks it’s one of the most unique circuits that Formula One visits.
“This track has a bit of everything – high speed, low speed, walls, drama – so it is a good one. It would be nice to see more tracks like this, as it really tightens things up a little bit and we see other cars that normally don’t have any problems getting out of Q2, starting to struggle. It is very different to anywhere else we go to and is a lot of fun.”
