LanceStroll

Lance dominated his second season in the European Formula 3 Championship, a series once reknowned for producing leading Formula One talent. The results were unrelenting: 14 wins, 14 pole positions and an emphatic title win, 185 points clear of second position. Jumping from Formula 3 to Formula One doesn't happen too often, but Lance would make the step up...

In only his eighth Grand Prix, Lance claimed a sensational third-place finish during a highly entertaining and incident-strewn race in Baku. Rising above the chaos with a mature drive, Lance belied his young age. By claiming a podium, he became Formula One’s youngest ever rookie podium finisher, aged just 18 years and 239 days.

The challenge of the high-speed Monza circuit makes it a Formula One icon and it takes on a whole other dimension in the wet. During a rainy qualifying session, Lance kept his cool – nailing the only lap that mattered: his final Q3 run. He finished fourth – but was elevated to second when two other cars received grid penalties. A famous first front-row start for the Canadian.

Lance's affinity with Monza has only grown. The 2020 Grand Prix was punctuated first by a Safety Car, which compressed the field into a high-speed train, followed by a red flag to fix broken safety barriers. The restart was a flat-out charge to the flag, with Lance once again showing his mettle, picking off rivals with clinical precision to claim a worthy third position.

If the resurfaced Istanbul Park surface was tricky in the dry, it was downright treacherous in the wet, but Racing Point and Lance rose above the rest as Lance planted his car on every apex and lapped two tenths clear of second place. He then made a storming start to lead the Grand Prix and was on course to take at least a podium finish before unseen front wing damage prevented him from leading more than 32 laps. A bittersweet result that demonstrated Lance's rapid rate of improvement behind the wheel.