Stroll: "Diet" upgrade boosting Racing Point in Germany F1 practice

Stroll and his team-mate Sergio Perez have had a difficult time in recent races, but they both hailed the good progress Racing Point has made by making a raft of changes to its car that are aimed at improving its handling and balance.

Both drivers finished in the top 10 in the more representative FP2 session in Germany and were encouraged by what they felt was a step forward.

"It is good to see we are in the upper end of the sheets for a change on Friday," said Stroll.

"It has been a while. So, it is always a good start to the weekend."

When asked by Autosport if it was his best day of practice so far in 2019, Stroll said: "It is definitely up there.

"The car is very different, she's actually been on a diet. It is good and we have to keep it up.

"Days like this are always nice. But it is a practice session and it doesn't count for anything. [My] sights are set on tomorrow."

Perez was equally positive about the progress Racing Point appears to have made, but said that the team still needed to work a lot on improving the balance of the car if it is going to get both cars into Q3 tomorrow.

"It has been a good day," he said. "[But] a difficult day to find balance out there.

"Struggling still with balance, but generally with the level of competition we have shown today we can be pleased with that.

"I think we are looking good. Hopefully we can maintain the level of competitiveness that we have shown today.

"Obviously tomorrow is going to be a very different story. But we aim for Q3 after the day we have today."

Regarding his feeling over a step change in the car from the last race, he said: "It is very hard to compare because we come from Silverstone, a track that is very smooth so the balance is always great in Silverstone.

"But here the balance is really bad, especially with these high track temperatures.

"But certainly when we look at our balance and our levels of pace, I think we have definitely done a good improvement and the car is feeling better.

"I think we can work around it a little bit better, but I think have a lot of work to do in terms of balancing the car."

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- The Autosport.com Team

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