Lance Stroll “will be better” this weekend at Imola, this after a difficult return to racing in Portugal, Racing Point claim.
The Canadian missed the Eifel Grand Prix earlier this month through illness, later testing positive for Covid-19, and was involved in two incidents at Turn 1 at Portimao, one with Max Verstappen in practice and again with Lando Norris during the race.
Coming to the defence of Stroll, team boss Otmar Szafnauer claimed that small break was enough for him to lose a little sharpness.
“Even Sergio, after he missed a couple of races, [found] it hard because your competition hasn’t missed any,” he told RaceFans.
“So you bounce back, but you’re not quite to the same level as everyone else around you who hasn’t missed anything. Lance will be better in Imola.”
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Though Stroll had recovered a week or so before the race in Portugal, the 22-year-old had not done much fitness work as he rebuilt his energy.
But the Racing Point chief didn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“That’s hard for me to tell,” he said on if there was any lingering after-effects. “[If] you ask Lance that question, he’s training with his trainer and his trainer sees no difference. He feels well in himself. So that’s a hard thing to answer.”
Without the clash with Norris, however, Szafnauer believes Stroll was on course for a strong race.
“When he came together with Lando, that was an overtake for seventh place. So he started 12th and in a few laps he was quicker than Lando, he should have got seventh,” he explained.
“Had he made that move stick we think he would have been around where [Pierre] Gasly finished [P5] which would have been a pretty good result, starting from 12th. We had a good race car.”