Szafnauer: "He decided on the tyres himself"

It is a historic day for Lance Stroll and his team Racing Point. The young Canadian takes pole position for the first time in his career. It is also the first pole for his team. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer glows with pride.

Racing Point didn't seem to be doing so well in the last few races. Perez often got good points, but Stroll was out of shape after a coronavirus infection and hasn't got points for a long time. That's why it will feel extra good for the Canadian to take pole, and for his team to finally have a chance to score a lot of points and take third place in the championship from Renault.

"Fantastic lap"

Talking to Sky Sports, Szafnauer found no words for Stroll's performance. "Pole position, Lance Stroll... What a lap it was actually. He did a great job. He called himself to go to the right tyre and then he drove a fantastic lap at the end. It was all about the right compound and it was Lance's decision at the beginning of Q3. He said the inters would be best at the end. We put him on the intermediate and he got the job done.

"It's good for Racing Point and Stroll to outshine a Red Bull in a wet qualifying session. Great work by the team. We did a lot of work last night. But a lot of work we had in the dry setup also helped. Now we need both drivers to score points and we need to maximize our results tomorrow," concluded Szafnauer.