Lance Stroll talks about passing Valtteri Bottas on the final lap in F1 Canadian GP, but rues safety car intervention.
It wasn’t the sound F1 Canadian GP qualifying for Aston Martin’s stroll where he was not only knocked out in Q2 but was handed a penalty for impeding which dropped him further towards the back. It wasn’t a traditional charge through the pack in the grand prix either.
Aston Martin switched Stroll to an early stop to undercut the cars ahead and it was successful to a point until the safety car intervened and it put the Canadian back in a train. Towards the end, he was at the back of pack fighting for points.
The train was led by Alexander Albon which had Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas. The Brit had a penalty against his name which eventually helped Stroll after he made a last gasp move on the Finn on the start/finish straight.
Exiting the final corner, Bottas lost a slight momentum which was enough for Stroll to pounce on him and take the place to be eventual ninth with Norris’ penalty. “We were unlucky with the safety car, we stopped a lap before it came out, we probably lost some positions there and then it was just damage limitation to try and pick up some points, also from qualifying after a tough day,” said Stroll.
“I had a fun final lap too, overtaking Valtteri just before the finish line. To hear the cheers from the grandstands when I took the position was great,” summed up Stroll, as Bottas was too pleased to finish in points despite losing the place to the Canadian on the last lap.
“I am pleased how it went, when you make up four position in the race, it is a good day, even if it is only for a point, it is something as it is important,” said Bottas. “So, I am pleased with it. Since Monaco, I can see that we can fight for the Top 10, so we have made some progress but we need to make more.
“It could have been P9, but my tyres began to wear out towards the end of the race, and Lance got me on the finish line. Even though we are bringing home only one point today, it’s a reward and a motivation boost to keep hunting for more. Now, it will be important to keep working in this direction and focus on improving our Saturday performance.”
Alfa Romeo chief engineer Xevi Pujolar added his view on the team trying to help Bottas defend from Stroll. “We wanted to use everything on the back straight just to protect against Stroll,” he said. “We need to look into more details.
“Fortunately, if it had been different. For sure, it’s quite frustrating to lose in the last just few metres. It is like this. I think overall for us, there is still a good job from where we started and finish P10. Now we’re P7 in the championship. So we take that as a positive result overall.”
Here’s how the fight panned out: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-canadian-grand-prix-norris-and-ocon-and-stroll-and-bottas-battle-to-the-finish-line.1769072025162090626.html
Here’s Fernando Alonso on iconic Top 3 in Canadian GP
