Mike Krack has defended Lance Stroll after the Canadian could finish only ninth in his home Grand Prix, seven places behind his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team team-mate Fernando Alonso, feeling he did well from where he started.
In the wet Qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Stroll struggled for grip and found himself eliminated in Q2 whereas Alonso went on to set a lap time good enough for a front row starting spot. His Saturday was further compromised when he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding, meaning he started only sixteenth on Sunday.
Alonso continued to be a podium contender and re-passed Lewis Hamilton for second place around mid-distance, a position he would then hold on to until the chequered flag.
Stroll, on the other hand, found himself stuck in a DRS train for much of the afternoon and was also compromised by the timing of the safety car, which came out just a lap after he had made a pit stop.
Krack, the Team Principal at Aston Martin, says Stroll deserves credit for his performance to go from sixteenth on the grid to ninth, with a last gasp pass on Valtteri Bottas a highlight.
“I think he did really well,” Krack is quoted as saying by RacingNews365.com. “[In qualifying], he struggled with grip, and if you struggle like that, and you don’t have the confidence, then it’s very difficult.
“[During the race], I think he drove really well. We took him out of traffic, and when he was out of traffic, he managed the lap times of the frontrunners on Hard tyres.
“But if you are in this DRS train, it’s really hard. To come from sixteenth to ninth is a great achievement. On paper, it looks only ninth, and when your team-mate finishes second, you think it’s not a good performance.
“But when you see where you’ve come from, I think it was very good. I think he will take the positives from here and with the races to come. We know he’s very strong in high-speed circuits, and we have couple of such circuits to come, so I’m confident that we can score with both [drivers].”
