One of the incidents that occurred during that 2017 race was hardly believable as it unfolded in front of our eyes. Nevertheless, a third-place finish for Stroll was a huge surprise, but one thoroughly deserved. A series of incidents and penalties ensured that Stroll was able to capitalise, and put on a properly impressive drive to keep pace with leading cars and hold onto second place until the final few metres as Valtteri Bottas just beat him to the line. He out-qualified his team-mate for the first time and managed to keep his nose clean as chaos erupted around him. That big performance came, not a moment too soon, in Baku. The Canadian driver had at least broken his points duck at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks before, but he was due a big performance to silence some of his harsher critics. He’d endured a difficult start to his F1 career, suffering three retirements in his first three races and three further finishes outside the points as his more experienced team-mate Felipe Massa amassed 20 points from the first six rounds.īy the eighth race of the year, questions were already being asked of Stroll’s worthiness to compete in F1. A single podium for Valtteri Bottas at the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix was the team’s only silverware over the 30-race period leading up to the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.īottas left the team for Mercedes at the end of 2016, and his replacement was the young and inexperienced Lance Stroll. Following a short resurgence at the beginning of the hybrid era thanks to the power of the Mercedes engine, the team had gone from a regular podium finisher to a mid-field contender. Lance Stroll finishes on the podium in 2017īy 2017, the early signs of another Williams slump were beginning to show.
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