Azerbaijan GP: Stroll's confidence transformed for practice – Massa

Last year's European Formula 3 champion Stroll scored his first F1 points with ninth at his home race in Montreal a fortnight ago.

He followed that up with sixth in Friday practice in Baku, with title contender Lewis Hamilton among the drivers he outpaced.

"It was very good for him, he did a good lap time," Massa told Autosport.

"It shows that he's getting confidence, it shows a good race in Canada is helping his confidence.

"He doesn't know the track, it's his first time here, so definitely it was the best Friday he's had all season."

Stroll, who avoided any incidents on a day when several more experienced drivers were caught out, agreed that getting laps in was paying off.

"What was really positive was we didn't have any issues or nothing that got in the way of our running programme," he said.

"On this kind of track, you gain confidence every lap.

"It was about doing laps and doing everything we needed to get done in our programme done.

"Today we did exactly that, we didn't lose any laps with problems, we just managed to get everything done."

He added that he felt much more comfortable than he did at his home race.

"In Canada I felt the track was tricky for many reasons," Stroll said.

"Here it's a long out-lap, so you have time to warm the tyres properly.

"Also I just like the rhythm of the track. It was not that I disliked Canada, it was just tricky - you have to attack the first kerb, flick the car across, there are a lot of chicanes and it's about knowing where to position the car.

"It took me until the race to really figure it out fully, to be honest.

"And we didn't get a clean qualifying done in Canada which is a big reason for where we were on Saturday.

"Here I just had a clean day."

Massa was five places and nearly half a second behind Stroll in 11th.

"My position at the end was not the one it was supposed to be," Massa said.

"I had a lot of traffic on the new tyres, and I couldn't really put a lap together because of the traffic and then yellow flags.

"But I was quite happy on the long run, consistent, so at the end we are in the fight."

Williams discovered that it was too light on downforce in Baku last year, when the team set record straightline speeds, and Massa confirmed that it has changed its philosophy.

"This year I believe we are in the right range, so it should be better," he said.