Rookie Stroll Struggles in Same Corners on Playstation and for Real

Canadian rookie Lance Stroll had a big off in FP2 of the Monaco GP. Stroll had lost the rear end at the top of the hill and crashed into the barrier at Massenet before finally coming to a stop at Casino Square. “I was really happy with the day, other than the little crash at the end,” he said after FP2 on Thursday “I’m going to look at the little areas that I need to improve on for Saturday – corner eight [Portier] and the last corner are the two places I really need to improve on. It really pisses me off, because every time I play the PlayStation game, it’s always those corners that I couldn’t get right, and in reality it’s still those two corners! So that’s the focus for Saturday, a bit more time in the car in FP3 and still build up to a few parts of the track.”

Describing his account of the crash, he said “I just sent it in, kind of looking for the limit. I lost the rear and got into the dirt a little bit – typical street circuit mistake. If you don’t touch the wall in Monaco, you’re not on the limit. At least I knew I was pushing, I know where I need to be on Saturday and I have FP3 to get back into it.”. Felipe Massa defended his rookie teammate by saying “First time in Monaco, man, these things happen, He just hit the guard rail. Many people crash here in their first time – ‘welcome to Monaco’ is maybe the right words to use. The positive thing is that he was doing good lap times today, he was competitive, even more competitive than he was in Barcelona, a track that he knows. Monaco is Monaco and you just need to understand that, whatever mistake, maybe can finish your session.”

Massa feels that when rookies crash at Monaco, it is like a proper initiation ceremony for them to prepare them for the race.