Lance Stroll scored his fifth top-ten finish of the season in the Styrian Grand Prix thanks to a strong start and a "maximum attack" effort that also saw him outpace his Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel.
After failing to exit the first segment of qualifying in Baku and at Paul Ricard, Stroll made it into Saturday's Q3 shootout which he concluded P10.
But the Canadian was able to line up 9th on Sunday's grid thanks to Yuki Tsunoda's three-place grid penalty.
At the start, Stroll unleashed one of his signature opening laps, overtaking a string of cars to move all the way up to sixth where he remained until his pitstop on lap 28.
"It was a good first lap," said Stroll. "I overtook Fernando around the outside and that really set us up for a good rest of the race.
"From there it was just maximum attack and happy to pick up some points for the team today."
©AstonMartin
However, dueling with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was always going to be a challenge for the Aston charger who eventually brought his AMR21 home in eighth place.
"The Ferraris seemed a bit too quick, so I don’t think we could have got much more out of it today," added the 22-year-old.
"We tried to hold off Carlos and Charles but they had strong pace in the final part of the race and a tyre advantage. So P8 is a good result and we can be happy with a positive weekend from the very first lap on Friday."
- Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2021 Styrian GP
On the other side of Team Silverstone's garage, after qualifying a lowly P13, Vettel remained engulfed all afternoon in the thick of the midfield pack, but just outside of the points.
But the four-time world champion vowed to return "stronger" next weekend at the same time and place.
"It was a tough race today," said Vettel. "The midfield was very close and we were in the battle for points for the majority of the race. However, we spent a lot of time in traffic and I was struggling for grip towards the end.
"When everyone is so closely matched, these factors can really impact your race and the final result. It is always very easy to say we should have done things differently in hindsight.
"But we are focused on coming back stronger next weekend," he added.
"The tyres are one step softer for the Austrian Grand Prix, for example, so there is plenty of preparation work ahead in the coming days."
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