Lance Stroll admits it was quite an experience to run in front of his home crowd for the first time on Friday in Canada.
The Montreal native has been coming under pressure to improve in recent races, but as practice got underway, the first Canadian since former world champion Jacques Villeneuve to take to the circuit named after his father Gilles took a moment to soak in the atmosphere.
“It’s a great track, I really like the rhythm and it’s just good to be home,” the 18-year-old said. “It was a good day getting used to the track, but I have to treat it as just another race at the end of the day as everything stays the same. However, it’s great to have those Canadian flags in the grandstands.
“On the out lap I looked at the fans and saw them waving and cheering and that is really cool.”
As for his performance, it was a better start than at most races as he claimed 12th in the morning. Stroll would slip back to 17th in the afternoon but revealed there was a reason for that.
“I didn’t get a chance to put on the ultrasoft, so we will see what they are like tomorrow, he said. “We were focused on some other things, so it was just part of the plan. It’s still quite close in the midfield, as it has been all year, and everyone has been doing different programmes, so we will see how it is in qualifying.”
As for team-mate Felipe Massa, he again will lead the Williams charge around a venue at which the team has had good recent success. The Brazilian highlighted that by claiming sixth in the afternoon and was very pleased with how his Friday panned out.
“I think we’ve had a very good day,” the 36-year-old claimed. “The car felt good on both new and used tyres. I was very happy with the feeling I had in the car. Everything we tried on set-up seemed to improve it even more.
“We just need to keep everything under control for tomorrow, and hopefully we can be as competitive as we were today.”