Lance Stroll believes a case of radar watching hampered his chances of a podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After Racing Point matched their best-ever combined result in qualifying, pre-race rain was perhaps the last thing the team wanted on Sunday.
The Canadian though capitalised to claim second into Turn 1 but was soon passed by a fast-starting Max Verstappen as drivers switched to slicks.
Stroll was then caught up behind Kevin Magnussen, who changed tyres on the formation lap, allowing a recovering Valtteri Bottas to catch up and ultimately get ahead for the final podium place.
“Absolutely. I definitely think a podium was possible today,” Stroll said post-race.
“We were staying out a bit longer towards the middle of the race where Valtteri undercut us when he was behind us.
“He went for the stop and we were expecting some more rain so we were trying to drag out that stint a little bit longer and unfortunately the rain never came.
“He just managed to simply undercut us and by the time we pitted a couple of laps later he was eight seconds up the road and we were comfortably P4 at the stage.”
Also Read:
Still, it was by far Stroll’s best overall weekend in F1, even if he didn’t repeat his P3 from Baku in 2017, and now he hopes to use Racing Point’s performance as momentum going forward.
“It’s been a solid weekend from start to finish and I truly believe we have the second fastest car here this weekend which gives me a lot of positivity moving forward this year.”
Post-race, Renault confirmed it has again protested the legality of both Racing Point cars for the second straight race.
Stroll’s teammate Sergio Perez finished seventh after a poor start.
