Lance Stroll made one of the biggest climbs in the standings during the Monaco Grand Prix, as he started the race in 13th and finished up in 8th. His race was also helped by Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas' retirements, but surely Monaco has been one of the most successful weekend for Aston Martin so far, as Sebastian Vettel also finished in the points in 5th. 

The Canadian driver was the only one to opt for a hard - soft tyre strategy, with an opening stint which lasted 57 laps. The unique strategy helped Stroll to reach points, but it wasn't an easy one, as his Aston Martin almost hit the wall like Leclerc's in Q3. 

Cameras caught the Aston Martin number 18 leapinbg twice over the kerbs at the exit of the Swimming Pools (once during Vettel's overtake on Gasly): a killer point of the street circuit, which caused, as previously said, Leclerc crash in Q3. On the second occasion Stroll believed he would suffer a similar ending during the race: he clipped the inside barrier on the right, a maneuver can leads to steering wheel failure and heavy contact with the barrier at the exit. But it didn't happen to Lance. 

"It rattled my brain a little bit! - Stroll told Motorsport.com - I was a bit surprised. I thought my day was kind of done actually, after the second one.

LAP 19/78

Lift off for Stroll ✈️😮#MonacoGP 🇲🇨 #F1 pic.twitter.com/uXuF7jDc0d

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 23, 2021

“The first one I kind of managed to save it, but second one, I had a big thump on the inside. And normally when you got a big thump on the inside, we all know how it ends, so I was pretty happy. I used up my jokers there."

Stroll was the only one to opt to wear the hard compound for the start, a choice that could lead to overheating issues: "It wasn't ideal, but I still got a pretty good launch. And, the soft tyre runners didn't really pull away from me too much on the launch.

"So, all in all, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be or as difficult as I expected it to be at the beginning."

Stroll comes back in the points for the first time since Imola's race. 

"I think our race was from lap 50 to lap 60 on the hard, hoping for a safety car, or just something to happen. And we managed to just actually overcut the others, Esteban [Ocon] and [Antonio] Giovinazzi on pace. I wasn't expecting that before the race. I mean, I expected them to have some good pace on that second stint, and we were going to maybe benefit from a safety car or something. But, in the end, we just had good pace. We were able to do it on good pace."

His race wasn't threatened only from the kerbs, but the canadians almost took a penalty for crossing the line at the pit-exit: the team didn't inform the driver to not distract him, but Stroll found out from the giant screen at the Ste Devote.

"I knew it was on the edge, but I thought I was racing Ocon, I heard 'racing Ocon,' so I pushed quite hard, but in the end we had like six seconds gap to him when we exited the pitlane - Stroll said - Actually, they didn't tell me on the radio, but I saw it on the Jumbotron when I was driving. I saw ‘under investigation’.

"I put in some good laps for that, I didn't know, but I had like 30 seconds at the end to the cars behind, so a 10-second penalty would still be OK".