Aston Martin boss Mike Krack defends "very strong” Lance Stroll despite P9 finish in Montreal

Aston Martin F1 team principal Mike Krack defended his driver Lance Stroll's P9 finish, saying that it was a great comeback drive from the Canadian at his home race.

Stroll started the race from P16 after another poor showing in the qualifying session in changeable conditions on Saturday in Montreal. He was pretty ominous throughout the race and did not make any headways in the field.

However, in the latter half of the race, he found himself in the battle for the final point finishes.

Lance Stroll overtook Valtteri Bottas on the line in the last seconds to finish P10, which became P9 post-Lando Norris's five-second penalty. While speaking to the media, including PlanetF1, Krack said:

“I think he did really well. [In qualifying], he struggled with grip, and if you struggle like that, and you don’t have the confidence, then it’s very difficult. [During the race], I think he drove really well. We took him out of traffic, and when he was out of traffic, he managed the lap times of the frontrunners on hard tires.

"If you are in this DRS train, it’s really hard. To come from 16th to ninth is a great achievement. On paper, it looks only ninth, and when your team-mate finishes second, you think it’s not a good performance. But when you see where you’ve come from, I think it was very good.

"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 have a couple of such circuits to come, so I’m confident that we can score with both [drivers].”

Lance Stroll analyzes Canadian GP race in his hometown

The Canadian driver continued his streak of scoring points in every Canadian GP he has raced in.

As per F1.com, Lance Stroll spoke of his P9 finish and said:

“It was a good recovery drive to score a couple of points this afternoon. We got unlucky with the Safety Car; pitting a lap before it was deployed meant we missed out on a cheaper stop while the cars around us were able to take that opportunity.

"At that point, our focus had to shift to damage limitation and trying to pick up a couple of points for the team. There are still positives to take from the race; the AMR23 felt strong and was performing well. I had a fun final lap too, overtaking Valtteri [Bottas] just before the finish line."

Lance Stroll trails his teammate Fernando Alonso by 80 points in the 2023 season.