Lance Stroll was satisfied after achieving his best qualifying result of his short Formula 1 career and also beat Williams team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time over a single lap in Baku.
It was another target box ticked for the young Canadian, who has often struggled to be within a second of the vastly more experienced Brazilian on Saturday’s, but will line-up eighth on the grid for the race on Sunday.
Baku signalled the current European F3 champion’s second appearance in the top 10 shoot-out this season, following on from that he achieved in China back in April.
“It was a good day and it has been a good weekend. I am comfortable and confident in the car,” Stroll, who has been consistent all weekend, said after the session. “I like the circuit and today everything fell into place.
As is the case with all F1 drivers, however, the 18-year-old wasn’t totally happy, despite his performance, claiming: “I missed a bit in Q3, and I think there was some more that was possible there, as we were four-tenths off compared to my lap in Q2.
“In Q3, because the track temperatures had dropped, it was hard to get the tyres ready in one lap and also because of the red flag, we only had time to do one push lap,” he added, explaining the reason for the time difference.
“Sometimes around here it is better when you do one push lap, then another prep lap and then another push lap. But it is still a great result and I am just happy for the team.”
Though many are suggesting Stroll’s improvement comes from the confidence gained after his first points finish at his home race in Montreal, technical director Paddy Lowe would reveal work had been done with Lance at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas since the last race.
“He went to Austin last week driving the 2014 car,” he said. “They did a few experiments with set-up, looking at some of the differences between his set-up and Felipe’s set-up and some of that’s been brought forward here and I think it’s put him in a much better place.”
Despite the vastly different designs of the FW36 and this year’s FW40, Lowe continued: “They had a whole day to do some straightforward experiments with stable tyres, good sets of tyres, run a programme. And they’re fairly generic set-up directions that apply equally to a 2014 car as on a 2017 car.
“The trouble on a Friday [at a Grand Prix] is you’ve got limited time, limited numbers of tyres, they’re often not the same type of tyre, then the track’s moving quite quickly as well. It’s a great advantage to be able to go and spend a whole day on something.”
