Lance Stroll’s race was compromised from the very first lap in Baku, as contact with Yuki Tsunoda’s RB gave him a puncture, the resulting pit stop dropping him to last place. But while the Canadian left Azerbaijan disappointed, Fernando Alonso bagged good points for the team with a sixth-place finish.
That was Alonso’s best finish since he also finished sixth in Canada, eight races ago. The Spaniard had to work hard in the opening stages to keep ahead of Franco Colapinto, who was put on an aggressive strategy by Williams, but from there was able to pull away to finish as the best midfield runner.
“The pace today was better than expected, degradation was better than expected,” the Spaniard said. “We stopped on Lap 13 and carried to the end with one set of hards with good pace.