03/09/2017
NEWS STORY
Lance Stroll finished seventh with Felipe Massa eighth in the Italian Grand Prix. Both drivers started on the supersoft tyre with Lance dropping back to P3 on lap one whilst Felipe maintained position in P7.
Lance pitted from P5 for a set of soft tyres on lap 17 but suffered a slow pitstop. Felipe pitted on lap 21 from P7 for a set of soft tyres.
Lance and Felipe pushed hard in P7 and P8, but were unable to find a way past the Force India of Ocon in P6.
Felipe is now 11th in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Lance in 12th. The team remains fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 55 points.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: From the start, it was a very different day than yesterday. The sun was shining and there was a big Italian crowd, so you could feel we were building up to a good race. It was quite a special feeling to be on the front row looking down the long straight into the first corner. Both drivers got good starts, but unfortunately Lance lost a position to Ocon, and the race settled down from there. I think we had slightly stronger pace than Force India today. We could have potentially got back ahead of Ocon but uncharacteristically, we had a small problem with Lance's pitstop. Lance pushed hard but wasn't able to get ahead, so in the end he finished seventh with Felipe right behind him on track in eighth. It's a valuable 10 points that we really need at this stage in the championship, so congratulations to the team who have done a great job back at the factory and at the circuit this weekend, and well done to the drivers who drove very consistent races to bring home the points for us.
Lance Stroll: I am very happy with the race and I think it was a good one. I really enjoyed myself. It was a bit of a shame at the start, as we lost position to Ocon, as Hamilton had a bad start and defended, so I had to back off. We were in P3 and then both Ferraris and the Mercedes of Bottas overtook. I then had a big flat spot at the end of the race, so started to lose time to Ocon and then was defending from Felipe. All in all, the race was very positive. I finished in P7, which was what we were expecting.
Felipe Massa: I think it was definitely a good result for the team. It's always good to score points with both cars. Today we scored 10 points with both cars. I was happy with the race and with the fights. I just had a little touch at the end with Lance but fortunately nothing happened and we managed to finish well. I'm happy with the performance and the race. It was a good Sunday for the team.