Stroll left ‘frustrated’ with point-less display in Spain even after winning duel with Alonso

Despite pulling off what his Aston Martin team principal described as "the overtaking manoeuvre of the race" on Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll was disappointed to come away from the Spanish Grand Prix without scoring a point.

Neither Stroll nor team mate Sebastian Vettel managed to score in Barcelona, the Canadian finishing P11 and the German P13, but Stroll did enjoy a proper scrap with two-time champion Alonso in front of the Spaniard’s home fans. However, ultimately it counted for nothing as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly took the final point in P10.

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“We fought hard with the AlphaTauri, but just did not have enough to get P10,” said Stroll. “We also raced hard against Fernando [Alonso] and the moment at Turn 1 was… good wheel to wheel racing – he pushed me wide – and I was just late on the brakes and we touched.

“It is a bit frustrating not to get the point at the end. This weekend has helped us continue to learn and improve the car. We will keep pushing to unlock some more speed before Monaco,” he added.

Asked whether he had gained any useful knowledge of his car from the race, his second with Aston Martin’s latest upgrade package for the AMR21, Stroll replied: “Yes, I mean we’ve just got to keep pushing, developing the car, finding some speed in the car and yes, we’ll see what happens in Monaco.”

Aston Martin will go into the Monaco weekend with five points in the bank – five fewer than AlphaTauri – after four rounds of the 2021 Championship. Nevertheless, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was fullsome in his praise of Stroll’s pass on Alonso in Spain.

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“Sebastian made up a place at the start and, until the Safety Car was deployed, our two cars were running in line astern, Lance just ahead. Soon afterwards, Lance pulled off the overtaking manoeuvre of the race, a brilliant move on Fernando [Alonso], thereby moving up to 10th.

“However, towards the end of the race, both our drivers were passed by Pierre [Gasly], dropping them to 11th and 13th, with the result that, again, frustratingly, we narrowly failed to score points,” he concluded.