Lance Stroll cherished his early battle with Lewis Hamilton before ‘struggling’ with race pace and tire degradation in Barcelona

Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll mentioned that he 'cherished' his battle for P3 against Lewis Hamilton in the early stages of the 2023 Spanish GP on Sunday (June 4).

The Canadian driver got a super start in the race after starting from P5 and found himself in the final podium slot as he passed the Mercedes driver into Turn 5 on Lap 1.

Unfortunately for Stroll and the team, he could hold onto his position and was passed by the Brit in a couple of laps as the AMR23 did not have the race pace of their rivals.

In his post-race interview, Lance Stroll said:

"It was a fun battle with Lewis [Hamilton] on the first lap; I've pulled that move off before so I knew there was a gap and figured Lewis would leave me a bit of space, which he did. That put me in a good position going into Turn Five and I could hold the place. Then, from about five laps in, we really struggled with the pace."

Stroll continued:

"My tire degradation was higher than expected but the cars around us didn't seem to have the same issue, so it's something we'll look to understand for the coming races."

"We bring home some good points finishing sixth and seventh but I think we'd been hoping for slightly more today. I'm looking forward to heading to Canada, my home race, in a few days' time."

"They normally say if you are quick in Barcelona, the car should generally be good everywhere" - Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time world champion stated he was hopeful that the team could be competitive on all tracks going forward in 2023 as Barcelona is a good marker for the rest of the season.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton said:

"They normally say if you are quick in Barcelona, the car should generally be good everywhere. I think we will be strong in the next races. There will be times when the Aston is maybe slightly ahead or the Ferrari maybe is ahead but I think our race pace continues to be a strength of ours, as it was last year."

"I think this weekend particularly we understand the car even more so we can count on that being strong moving forwards."

It will be fascinating to see in which races in 2023 can Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes really challenge Red Bull on the track and get a win.