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SportPesa Racing Point Formula 1 team scored their first points since the Azerbaijan GP in April. Canadian driver Lance Stroll couldn't have hoped for a better result as he scored two points in his home race after finishing ninth.
It was the first time the team competed in its home race under SportPesa Racing Point livery. Unfortunately, Sergio Perez finished just outside the points scoring places as he struggled with the high temperatures and being caught in traffic.
This is what the drivers had to say about the weekend...
Stroll says: "The car performed so well today and it feels great to score points in Montreal. The lead up to the race wasn’t easy – losing the power unit yesterday and taking a performance hit by going back to the old engine – but we kept pushing, went out there and grabbed a couple of points. My start was strong, which moved me up a few positions and the key to our strategy was all about going long on the first stint with the hard tyre.
By the time we switched to the medium, we were in good shape and I was able to chase down [Carlos] Sainz and make the move for ninth place. It was a really fun race: I put all my emotions on the table today and loved every minute of it. The team really deserved this: they’ve put in some long hours this week and it’s a boost for us all. It has been an awesome week with great support from the crowd. I’m going to remember this one for a while."
Sergio Perez says: "Not such a good day for me - but a good day for the team, scoring two points with Lance. We knew that getting into the points was going to be tricky, so we went with different strategies to try to maximise the opportunities. As it turned out, Lance was on the better strategy - but you only know which was the best strategy after the race."
"The whole weekend wasn't great for me. The pace today was quite poor - but I was always stuck in traffic, so the temperatures were on the limit and we couldn't do much about that. In the first stint, I suffered with the high track temperature, but, more than that, I could only put pressure on Kvyat ahead for two laps before I had to look after the brakes, which made things even harder. As a team we minimised the damage of the weekend - and that's important at the tough races."
Otmar Szafnauer says: “It’s fantastic to see Lance score points at his home race. After such a tough Saturday, he delivered a really strong performance today to fight through the field from P17 to ninth."
"He kept his head down and made the strategy work with some decisive overtakes too. Checo’s strategy - with the medium tyre for the first stint - didn’t play out as well, but we felt it was worth splitting the strategies between the cars. These two points are important after a tough couple of races and show all the hard work is beginning to pay off in terms of performance and results."