Lance Stroll: “All things considered, ninth was the maximum we could achieve”

Lance Stroll was happy to come away from the Turkish Grand Prix with a ninth place finish, with the Canadian feeling he got everything he could out of his AMR21 on Sunday afternoon.

The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver was a points contender throughout the day at Intercity Istanbul Park, with Stroll admitting it was a challenging day due to the conditions, with the track drying out in places but never getting dry enough for dry weather tyres.

Despite losing some time during his pit stop, Stroll does not feel that cost him any positions, and he can now go to the United States Grand Prix with confidence after two top ten results in three races.

“I am happy with today’s result and I think we got everything out of the car, so it is a job well done by the team,” said Stroll.  “It was tricky out there because the track was so slippery.

“There was also the challenge of the circuit drying in some places, which was causing graining of the tyres, and the question mark about a switch to slicks was always there. All things considered, ninth was the maximum we could achieve today.

“We lost a little bit of time during the pit stop, but I don’t think it made much of a difference to our final result. I am excited to head over to the United States next because it is a chance to spend a bit of time at home in Canada before we focus on fighting for points in Austin.”

“As soon as I left the pits, I knew it was the wrong decision” – Sebastian Vettel

Team-mate Sebastian Vettel took a gamble during the race, with the German making a surprise switch to the medium compound tyre despite the track still being wet.

With the intermediates wearing down and becoming almost slick-like, Vettel felt the gamble to try the dry weather tyres was worth it, but a lack of tyre temperature meant he went off twice on his out lap before another half spin as he entered the pit lane to swich back to intermediates.

Vettel believed the gamble was worth taking but it was not to be, and it left the German well outside the points in eighteenth at the chequered flag.

“The gamble did not work out today,” said Vettel. “Something inside me was calling me to try dry tyres because there was nothing left on my Intermediate tyres and I thought the dry tyres might work, even if the track was still damp.

“But as soon as I left the pits, I knew it was the wrong decision: there was no grip and I could not make them work. It probably cost us a point or two because we ran inside the top 10 until that moment.

“I was really surprised how slowly the track improved and it was similar to last year because it just did not dry out.”

Sebastian Vettel gambled on a switch to dry tyres, a gamble that failed to pay off – Credit: Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team