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Stroll almost forgot the feeling of points

Stroll "almost forgot" the feeling of points

04-09-2018 16:50

Lance Stroll and Williams have had a difficult season in 2018, but there was at least some reward for all their hard work last weekend in Monza, with their first double points finish of the season.

Canadian Stroll managed to take his car into Q3 for the first time in a while, an achievement in what is the worst car in the field and then drove a solid race to finish P10 on track, the same as his starting position.

Sergey Sirotkin agonisingly missed out on his first points in F1 by finishing P11, although Grosjean’s disqualification for an illegal floor promoted him to P10, and Stroll to P9, giving Williams three points for the race.

It is the first time in nearly a year that Williams have recorded a double points finish, since the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2017, where Stroll and Massa finished eighth and ninth respectively.

After the race Stroll said: "It’s very satisfying. I almost forgot what it felt like to score a point. It’s been a tough run. It’s going to sink in later and we will definitely celebrate in style.”

Stroll also revealed that he had been keeping an eye on Monza to be Williams’ next opportunity of points: “I’ve had my eyes on this one for a while. I knew we were going to have a tough run with the car’s performance but I was eying Monza and I said to myself if we can nail it in Monza, there’s potentially a good result up for grabs.

“And we did it this weekend. We nailed it in qualifying. We had a good slipstream, I put my lap together. And in the race, it was steady with no mistakes.”