SPORTS
Williams win DHL Fastest Pit Stop in Baku
Baku, April 30, AZERTAC
Lance Stroll enjoyed a worthwhile outing in the Azerbaijan GP in Baku. The Williams driver finished the action-packed race in eighth place and scored his first championship points of the campaign, according to dhl-in-motion.com.
The young Canadian also had the satisfaction of being serviced by his pit crew faster than any other driver. Stroll was dispatched in 2.18 seconds, which gave Williams the DHL Fastest Pit Stop of the event.
“It was a crazy race,” said Stroll. “So much happened. I am pretty happy with the race – there might have been one or two more positions if we’d done everything perfectly, but no one had a perfect race today.” Baku seems to be a happy hunting ground for Williams: when Formula 1 made its debut in the city on the Caspian Sea in 2016, the British team equaled the pit stop world record in a time of 1.92 seconds and subsequently went on to win the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for that year.
Despite minimal tire wear on the six-kilometer street circuit, there were no fewer than 35 pit stops, prompted in part by the chaotic circumstances of numerous accidents and a safety car deployment. McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne called in for four tire changes. His team demonstrated an extraordinary consistency throughout – Vandoorne’s fastest stop took 2.82 seconds and his slowest 3.23 seconds.