Stroll "pretty happy" with his first F1 season so far

Williams' Lance Stroll says that he is pretty happy with how his rookie season in Formula 1 is unravelling. The Canadian entered the season on the back of dominating the FIA Formula 3 European championship last year but struggled initially with his 2017 F1 car.

Stroll failed to match his teammate in qualifying and the race in the opening rounds, and many questioned his right to be in the sport. However, at the Canadian Grand Prix, Stroll burst from seventeenth on the grid to cross the line in ninth, taking his first points finish in F1.

At the very next race in Azerbaijan, Stroll avoided the drama and chaos to come home in third place, missing out on second by the smallest of margins. Stroll admitted that he was expecting the year to be a struggle but is happy with what he has achieved personally.

"Every time I get in the car, there is something to work on, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's been going lately," said Stroll. "Obviously we had our tough moments, which was expected in a first season You have to expect adversity and you have just got to get over it.

"But we had some great moments, scoring points, getting the podium in Baku, and we scored a good amount of points in the first part of the season. So far, so good, but there's still a long way to go, so we just have to take it race by race and focus on one thing at a time."

Williams has had a slightly underwhelming season, as it looks to be off the pace of Force India, who challenged them all last season for fourth place in the constructor standings. Over the summer break, Stroll says that it is important for the team to work on its consistency.

"We know that [consistency] is one of our issues, and we're addressing it, but it's not so simple," he said. "We're not where we want to be every weekend, due to different tracks, tracks that suit out car. Some ways it works and some tracks just don't work with our car. We're working on it, but it's not ideal, as sometimes we're comfortably in Q3 and at other tracks we're struggling to get out of Q1, so we need to fix that."

Fergal Walsh