Smart Stroll made pole-clinching tyre call - Szafnauer

Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer has revealed Lance Stroll personally made the call to run on intermediate tyres in the final session of qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Canadian Stroll predicted the conditions would be dry enough to switch from full wets in the closing stages at Istanbul Park and his decision proved vital in securing him his maiden pole position and first for the team since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix when it was known as Force India.

“He made the call,“ said Szafnauer. “He called it at the beginning of Q3 and said it's going to be intermediates at the end and he was absolutely right. He was pretty quick on the wet, came in, put the intermediates on and just went quicker.

"It was all about the tyre. What a session for him. He did a great job, called the tyre right and put a stunning lap in at the end. It's great for Lance Stroll in a Racing Point to out-qualify Max [Verstappen] in a Red Bull in the wet."

Stroll, however, later faced a nervy time to see if he would retain his pole after being summoned to the stewards for an alleged yellow-flag infringement - ironically after a spin involving team-mate Sergio Perez - but was eventually cleared.

Szafnauer is now determined to ensure Racing Point’s positive work in practice throughout Friday and on Saturday morning will mean qualifying is not the only highlight of the weekend.

“We did a lot of work, we got the tyre working overnight,” added Szafnauer on Sky Sports F1. “Even the work that we did on our dry set up helped today so hopefully we will have a good race tomorrow.

"I think the probability of rain is less than it was today, but either way I think we'll be in good shape. We've got a good starting position now and we just have to capitalise on it."

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