Sep.10 (GMM) Pedro de la Rosa has strongly defended Lance Stroll after an unpleasant qualifying milestone at Monza, insisting the Canadian is far closer to Fernando Alonso than his reputation suggests.
Stroll recently passed 200 Grand Prix starts and at Monza became the first driver in F1 history to record 100 Q1 eliminations.
But Aston Martin ambassador de la Rosa told Beyond The Grid that the raw data paints a different picture. “Lance is super fast,” the former F1 driver insisted.
“I love to watch data because I’m data driven and I like to see where one driver is faster than the other, and Lance, many, many circuits, in many corners, he’s unbeatable.”
De la Rosa said there is no obvious corner type where Alonso has a consistent advantage over 27-year-old Stroll.
“They’re both very evenly matched,” said the Spaniard.
“Lance is extremely quick in all types of corners.”
He believes Stroll’s biggest weakness is simply putting qualifying laps together cleanly.
“Sometimes he’s had some mistakes in qualifying or little things that then eventually, if you don’t qualify up there, it just compromises the whole weekend.”
“That’s where he’s missing.”
But de la Rosa pointed out that Stroll does sometimes beat Alonso outright.
“Sometimes he gets it, you know, in quali, and he outqualifies Fernando, which is like, I mean, we’re talking about Fernando Alonso.”
He also praised Stroll’s race pace and tyre management.
“I think Lance is a very underrated driver.”
“For Lance, whenever the car is driving properly, he’s as quick as Fernando. There’s no question about that.”
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