Williams struggled for pace all weekend at the Hungaroring, and was further compromised after Friday when Felipe Massa fell ill and reserve driver Paul di Resta had to jump into his race seat at very short notice. The team therefore seemed to be on a real back foot going into Sunday, and for Lance Stroll the Hungarian Grand Prix proved to be one of the more uneventful races of his short F1 career so far.
"It was quite a boring race," he said afterwards. "I was driving alone the whole time, so not much happened and we didn't have the pace this weekend to stay with the others. I tried everything I could in the first stint to hold the other guys, and I was doing OK. Then, in the second stint, I tried the undercut but I just didn't have the pace and overheated the rears too much. We kind of finished where we started, and we expected that."
After a long, hot and tough weekend in Hungary, Stroll now seems eager to focus on the circuits to come in the second half of the season, where he hopes Williams will have more success. He is also positive about his own personal progress since his Grand Prix debut in Australia, feeling that he is a different driver now to the one who raced in Melbourne.
"All in all, it was a tough weekend, but now we need to look forward to the other kind of tracks - Spa, Monza - that should be better for our car. Now we are over halfway through the season, I feel very different to Australia. It was my first race and with each one I have been getting a little bit better.
"Obviously you shine a bit more on the tracks that work with the car, but for sure every race and every weekend I am getting more experience and becoming a better driver. I am now looking forward to the break to recharge the batteries and do a lot of training."
Mason Hawker
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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Login to replyf1dave
Posts: 782
Probably true when you are in fourteenth place.