Lance Stroll admitted he was surprised to grab a starting position on the front row despite Williams expecting they’d be competitive at Monza.
Stroll, who is starting his 13th race this weekend, qualified fourth but will be promoted to second place after the Red Bull drivers take their penalties.
“It feels great,” he said. “I didn’t expect that coming into today, but racing is full of surprises and you never know what will happen.”
“They were difficult conditions out there, but we really handled it well as a team and pulled it off. I felt confident, felt good with the car and put it all together.”
Stroll vowed to “just going to run my race like I always do” despite his unusually high grid slot.
“I am starting from a bit of a different position, but anything can happen and we have just got to be on top of our game tomorrow.”
“The car just seems more competitive this weekend. I know the conditions weren’t really normal. We expected coming into this weekend with more straights and less high speed corners we would be a bit more competitive and it just seems to be that way.”
Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe said Stroll had been the “driver of the day”.
“We were briefing him this morning before FP3, asking him if he wanted extra practice in the wet because he’s never driven an F1 car in full wet conditions but he said “No, I’ll just take it as it comes” and that’s what he did.”
Josh (@canadianjosh)
2nd September 2017, 20:24
If he scores anywhere in the top 7 tomorrow it will be a good day for him.
aalate
3rd September 2017, 7:44
Bottas and canada (2011 was it?) comes to mind.. hopefully the williams is a bit more competitive in the dry nowadays than that year..
bull mello (@bullmello)
2nd September 2017, 21:00
Hard to say which is more surprising, Stroll’s performance or that of the Williams car in the wet.
Gabriel (@rethla)
2nd September 2017, 21:39
Both and they are making each other look even better.
verstappen (@verstappen)
2nd September 2017, 21:22
I didn’t expect that he hadn’t driven in wet conditions with his massive amount of testing – hats of
Andre Furtado
2nd September 2017, 22:27
I cannot stand this guy. But oh man. He pulled this off out his butt. Congratulations for him.
Aa
3rd September 2017, 2:05
I remember a certain German 9 years ago, shocking the F1 paddock with his performance in a wet qualifying session. Can see many similarities between the two.
Gary
3rd September 2017, 6:35
Except for the clear 85 million differences, I agree.
Denis Lefebvre
3rd September 2017, 5:01
I m impressed Lance !!! Good luck for the race ⚡⭐⚡👍
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
3rd September 2017, 8:08
I must admit that a few days I was one of those suggesting Williams change at least one of their drivers, and then today, much to my delight, I find that not only was I proven wrong, but most of my suggested alternatives didn’t even make it into Q3. Ha ha! Such is life! I am very pleased that both Lance and Felipe did so well. I do hope they score a tidy bundle of points.