Strategy key to Stroll's P6 finish as he “didn't have crazy good pace”

Shrewd strategy by Aston Martin allowed Stroll to reach sixth place in Melbourne

The Australian Grand Prix was a race of mixed fortunes for Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll finishing an impressive P6 and Fernando Alonso crashing out.

The Canadian, who has historically performed well in wet races, said his team made the right call to pit him when the wet weather picked up again at Albert Park.

“They were looking at the forecast and saw that it had started raining already on the other side of the track. They called me in, so I had nothing to do with it,” he admitted. “I saw everyone spinning and saw a lot of rain on my visor, so it was about staying on the track and then being on the right tire at the right time.”

Stroll said he was focused on not crashing in the tricky conditions around lap 34 when Alonso ran wide and hit the curb at turn 6. “It was a balance between pushing and going one second a lap faster with a 90% chance of crashing, or going one second a lap slower with a 50% chance of crashing," he explained.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“There was a high level of being in the uncomfortable zone today. There were very few moments in the race where I was in a comfort zone just cruising. I was always kind of tippy-toeing around," he added.

Despite the positive result, Stroll said the Andy Cowell- and Adrian Newey-led team still had a lot of work to do. “We have to keep pushing to make the car faster. Today was one of those races where we got a lot out of it, but we didn't have crazy good pace,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alonso’s race was brought to an “unlucky” end after hitting gravel on track. “The incident came from nowhere, to be honest,” he said. “I was a little bit surprised about losing the car. I was not wider than any other lap. I just found a lot of gravel stuck there in the middle of the circuit, and then I spun.”

He added: “It was a very costly incident, but I don’t know really what to do differently. Let’s try to analyze it a little bit better. I think it’s a little bit of an unlucky incident.”