Spare a Thought for Stroll and Kvyat’s Excellent Efforts at the Australian GP

In a sport that directs all the regard and love for the front row and the race winner, not an awful lot is reserved for the backmarker or those competing in the midfield. Isn’t it? The 2019 Australian GP was yet another event that was clinched by one of the top draws in the pinnacle of motor racing. As Valtteri Bottas exerted his might, perhaps much to the surprise of many who would’ve thought that Hamilton would go on to clinch the season-opener, one found the likes of both Ferraris struggling.

But while Red Bull got off to a flier with Max occupying the third step of the podium albeit in a car that lacked the pace of the winner, it would be wrong to think that all the action belonged to the front of the grid.

The likes of Daniil Kvyat and Lance Stroll, of Toro Rosso and Racing Point, demonstrated impressive drives at the 2019 Australian GP. To that end, that the ‘Torpedo’ as he’s commonly referred to immediately showed grit and pace, gathering a P10 having begun from fifteenth was impressive.

This wasn’t only for the fact that the Russian driver sat out for the entire 2018 season, having been placed with the Scuderia stable as the development driver. But also for the simple reason that given his confrontational drives in the past, most noticeably with Vettel in the Russian GP, the 24-year-old from Ufa wasn’t particularly cited perhaps in the same bracket of respect as a Carlos Sainz Jr. or others.

That told- a jump in the actual race of 5 positions warrants some respect for the Russian Torpedo- does it not?

In similar vein, Lance Stroll who endured an unimpressive qualifying at Melbourne, garnering only a P16 whilst finishing with a hard-fought ninth, that earned him 2 points at Australia drew a lot of praise for the Canadian.

And this, too, isn’t too hard to understand why.

The situation with Stroll isn’t exactly what it is for Verstappen, a driver with racing in his blood, being the father of one of Holland’s most admired driver, Jos Verstappen.

That Stroll’s journey has been picked with a lot of talk about his influential and powerful roots, which of course, cannot be discounted for his father ended up purchasing Racing Point, what does merit praise is the fact that there’s more to Stroll than his ‘privileged’ background.

Hailed for a drive labeled ‘gutsy’ by his team, Racing Point’s young driver, who’s currently in his third season in F1, having begun with the Australian GP of 2017, went on to not only open the account for the newly-christened outfit but also scored his first ever points at Albert Park, having previously finished outside of points in the 2018 and 2017 contests.