Lance Stroll explained how he got around Valtteri Bottas in F1 Spanish GP start as the Finn said he couldn’t do much in the Racing Point sandwich.
For Stroll, the start was one of many stand-out moments of a highlight-laden Spanish GP. Off the line, he caught up to Bottas, and the Canadian made a split-second decision as turn one rapidly approached to go on the inside of his opponent in the iconic left-hander.
It was a risky move, but one that allowed the Racing Point driver to get himself into the top three. From there, good strategic choices – coupled with Bottas’ resurgence – saw Stroll to finish fifth on the road, but fourth on the board after his teammate Perez was demoted
“It was too late [to back out of T1],” said Stroll. “I mean, I was kind of pulling up alongside him. So from there, I had to just keep it pinned. That’s what racing is all about, fine margins, but for sure I did it for the TV time. I was like, I’m not sitting here in fourth, I’ll get past a Mercedes for a few laps.
“Maybe if I would have heard that before [of braking in the dirty and possibly taking him out] the race I would have backed off but now you’ve said after, I’m glad I got away with it. I mean, it’s a bit of a lottery always braking on the inside there. No one goes there.
“So, I was I was really just tapping the brake pedal feeding it in. But I had enough grip to stick it. You can’t plan, it’s all on instinct. But you can plan where the braking point is with low grip high fuel is certainly instinct. Before the start and you always kind of envision in your mind where you’re gonna end up.
“I assumed if I’d get a good launch and Max would get a good launch, I’d be braking on the outside into turn one. And then I found myself on the inside of Max and the Mercedes of Valtteri, So, I didn’t plan on that. But I’m glad I made it stick and from there, it was a great race. You know, fourth is really the maximum that we could have done,” summed up Stroll.
Meanwhile, Bottas, explaining the start on his end, said he was overwhelmed with the F1 cars surrounding him, as Max Verstappen and Stroll restricted the usable area of track for the Finn. The poor start, combined with some misguided strategic mistakes, ultimately lost him the race, and dashed any chance of a win or a second place.
“I don’t really know if there’s much difference between left and right,” said Bottas. “I don’t know the facts. All I know is that I had a bad start, at least compared to Lewis and when you’re at the front, the effect is even worse because the cars behind get a tow out of you.
“So, first I tried to move to the left, to get a tow from Lewis but then Max was already there, and then I tried to go to the right to cover the inside, but one of the Racing Points was already there. Then I had cars on the outside and one of the inside that was ahead of me into Turn One. So I was a bit sandwiched.
“Everyone knows on this track how tricky it is when you lose two places at the start. Of course we tried everything we could. The pace was strong. I think the tyres were holding on a bit better than expected.
“We tried something different at the end for me and even made an extra stop at the end for the fastest lap, which worked – but for me personally, of course, really, really disappointing,” summed up Bottas, who lost more points to Lewis Hamilton.
Here’s Sergio Perez on penalty, Lance Stroll on fight with teammate
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out