Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack praised Lance Stroll for his recovery drive in the Canadian Grand Prix, calling his top-ten finish in Montreal "a great achievement".
Stroll seized the final championship point in his home race after dueling with Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas in the close stages of the race and overtaking the Finn just metres from the checkered flag. However, the local hero inherited P9 after Lando Norris' five-second sanction and demotion to 13th.
Stroll had qualified P13 in the tricky session on Saturday afternoon but was demoted three positions by the stewards for impeding his friend Esteban Ocon.
Relying on a two-stop strategy to navigate his way up the ranks, Stroll opted to make an early switch from the medium to the hard tyre on lap 11, just before the race's Safety Car neutralization.
©AstonMartin
After switching to a second set of hards on lap 27, the Canadian progressed up the field to land himself just outside the points with 15 laps to go.
He then came out on top of his final lap shootout with Bottas after a breathtaking sprint between the two drivers to the finish line.
While Stroll's result contrasted with Fernando Alonso's remarkable runner-up spot, Krack hailed the former's unwavering efforts in front of his home crowd.
"We took him out of traffic and when he was out of traffic, he managed the lap times of the front runners on the hard," said the Aton team principal. "But if you are in these DRS trains it’s really hard.
"To come from 16th to 9th I think it’s a great achievement. Now, on paper, it looks only ninth and your teammate finishes second and you think it’s not a good performance.
"But when you see where you come from, I think it was very good.
"So I think he will take the positives from here and with the races to come we know he’s very strong in high-speed circuits and we will have a couple of such circuits to come so I’m confident that we can score with both."
Krack noted that the timing of the race's early Safety Car had not played in favour of his driver.
"I think he was quite happy at the end, especially with the misfortune of the Safety Car coming just in the lap after he had stopped, which put him back actually in a couple of positions," he explained.
"At the end of the day there’s no point of lamenting or complaining about his situation. This is how racing goes and you have to do the best out of each situation.
"He did well, I’m really happy for his home race after yesterday to have such a good recovery."
Krack credited the health of Stroll's Mercedes power unit at the end of the race for his ability to out-drag Bottas' Alfa to the finish line.
"We gave it everything on the last straight, I can tell you," sid the Luxembourger.
"It was good because first of all Fernando was already through and then to have this sprint out of the last corner and then if it goes for you, it was a bit like Sebastian [Vettel] in Suzuka last year with Fernando.
"So credit to our power train that we had more juice at the end because our tyres were older."
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