Williams technical director Paddy Lowe believes the British team's pace showed marked improvement in China even if points were never in the cards.
The Grove-based outfit has endured a very difficult start to its 2018 campaign, its drivers struggling to bring the squad's new FW41 up to speed.
Lowe insists however that even after its dismal performance in Bahrain, Shanghai brought Williams reasons to feel hopeful.
"Although these aren’t great results, and certainly not in the points, compared to where we were in Bahrain it’s fantastic get two cars to the finish in 14th and 15th," said Lowe.
"We were certainly in the race whereas in Bahrain we were not even competing, so a much more positive feeling for everyone and something we can build on in the weeks to come."
Stroll deployed all his start line skills to boost his launch off the grid and put in a spectacular opening lap. The Canadian stuck to his one-stop strategy thereafter while team mate Sergey Sirotkin was ultimately switched to a two-stop race.
"Both cars had really good starts off the line with Lance taking the most profit out of it, through turns one and two, and getting as high as 12th with Sergey 15th.
"We always planned the one stop soft-medium and we stuck with that as it was working very well for us.
"The safety car didn’t help us that much but we took the opportunity to put Sergey on the soft tyre, which appeared to be a better tyre for us and for this circuit, as indeed it appeared to be for the front runners.
"On pace, we were able to beat the Saubers but through strategy, we were able to beat both Toro Rosso cars, as well as the Haas of Grosjean."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
