Lance picks up points finish in Formula One Spanish Grand Prix

After a range of street-based venues, Barcelona provided the ideal location to test a range of upgrades made to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® Team AMR23 car over recent races.

Lance got himself acquitted with the revised Barcelona layout over the course of the three Free Practice sessions, getting plenty of laps in despite the Saturday morning running being interrupted.

As qualifying arrived, Lance hit his stride and safely worked his way into the top 10 shootout. Making the most of the track conditions, Lance qualified in sixth place, which became fifth on the grid when Pierre Gasly was hit with a pair of penalties.

Starting on the Soft tyre, Lance capitalised on contact in front on the opening lap, as well as making a bold move on Lewis Hamilton at Turn Five, to work into third by the end of the first tour.

However, as the tyres started to wear, Lance dropped back behind Hamilton and George Russell before making an early pitstop for a second set of Soft tyres to prevent Esteban Ocon undercutting him, which he was able to do.

As the pitstop cycle continued, Lance worked his way back up the order and he worked into the top five.

Lance pitted for a second time on lap 34, this time for the Hard tyre and returned in the mid-pack.

The majority of the runners in and around Lance on the track also ran a variation of a two-stop strategy, and once everything had shaped out Lance was in sixth after losing out to Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

In the closing stages, team-mate Fernando Alonso came close to Lance but the Canadian driver was able to hold on for sixth place and eight World Championship points, coming home just ahead of his team-mate.

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Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® Team driver:

It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I've pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did. That put me in a good position going into Turn Five and I could hold the place. Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace. My tyre degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn’t seem to have the same issue, so it’s something we’ll look to understand for the coming races. We bring home some good points finishing sixth and seventh, but I think we’d been hoping for slightly more today. I’m looking forward to heading to Canada, my home race, in a few days' time.

Lance will be return to action for his home race, the Canadian Grand Prix, at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on 18 June.