Lance Stroll continues to seek his first Q2 appearance of the season after a sixth consecutive Q1 elimination with the Racing Point F1 Team in Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.
Stroll has now been eliminated in the first segment of Qualifying for the past ten races having ended 2018 with four consecutive eliminations whilst with Williams Racing. His last Q2 appearance came in last season’s Japanese Grand Prix where he qualified fourteenth.
The Canadian joined team-mate Sergio Pérez in being eliminated at the first hurdle during the most important Qualifying session of the season at the Circuit de Monaco, with his result not helped by traffic and a distinct lack of pace from the RP19 when it mattered.
“It hasn’t been easy in the lead up to qualifying,” said Stroll, who qualified eighteenth but will start seventeenth thanks to Antonio Giovinazzi‘s grid penalty. “We’ve been missing pace in practice and, even with the changes made to the car since Thursday, we still struggled today.
“It wasn’t made easier by such a busy track in Q1 and finding space for a clean lap was difficult – it’s always the case in Monaco. I didn’t get a clean run on my second attempt and that ended any chance to make Q2.”
Stroll feels it will be tough to score points from such a lowly grid slot, but he is not ruling anything out, particularly if it rains. He also believes that the grid slots for both him and team-mate Pérez are not a true reflection of the pace of the RP19.
“It’s going to be tough to score points, but let’s see what we can do, and see if the weather changes tomorrow,” said the Canadian. “I think we just have to remember that Monaco is a one-off race and I don’t believe our performance today is a true reflection of the speed we have in the car.
“Anyway, let’s see what happens tomorrow and try and make the most of those situations that come up in the race.”
