Lance Stroll said that Williams Martini Racing “just weren’t racing” in a very disappointing Monaco Grand Prix for the ailing Grove team.
Stroll finished seventeenth and last of the classified finishers, two laps down on victor Daniel Ricciardo. The Canadian suffered two punctures – one the result of overheating front brakes at Casino Square, the other missed by the television cameras – alongside other temperature issues throughout the race.
Earlier in the weekend, Stroll had complained about extreme discomfort around his knees as well as a loose headrest, just one race on from team-mate Sergey Sirotkin‘s Barcelona seat-related complaints. A frustrated 19-year-old said that it was a “pretty terrible” day overall.
“It was a pretty terrible day,” moaned Stroll.
“I got a puncture on lap nine and lost a bunch of time, like a lap, just getting to the pits.
“After that I was busy letting cars through with blue flags as I was a lap down. Then we had temperature problems all race, and I was told to give gaps and let cars by, so there was not much of an opportunity and we just weren’t racing today.”
However, Stroll – who has scored Williams’s only points of the season so far – said that he is eagerly awaiting his home race in Montreal in a fortnight’s time. He scored his first Formula 1 points at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last year and is hopeful that the Williams’s slippery nature will hold the team in good stead around the power-dependant circuit.
“Looking forward, I am very excited about my home race next,” he added.
“I hope we can have a much better weekend in Canada.”
