PATIENCE paid off for Lance Stroll as the teenager picked up his first Formula One points in front of his home crowd at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The 18-year-old Grove-based Williams driver had endured a frustrating start to his rookie season.

Despite qualifying 17th, a series of overtaking manoeuvres saw Stroll finish ninth at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal.

The teenager was delighted to score his first points.

He said: “I am just happy for myself, for the team, for everyone.

“The balance of the car was good all race.

“I was in a flow. I knew we had good straight line speed in the Williams.”

Stroll moved up to 15th and then as high as ninth following an early safety car period.

After making his first stop, the Canadian rejoined in 17th, but quickly gained positions on fresh tyres.

He moved into the points when passing Fernando Alonso and took ninth after Daniil Kvyat retired.

Stroll said: “I chose my overtakes at the right times, sometimes I could have done them a lap earlier, but it was a bit risky so I did it a lap later and stayed patient.

“It means the world to me being able to finish a race in the points and be able to see those Canadian flags up in the air at my race.”

It was an otherwise frustrating day for Williams as they lost ground on fourth-placed Force India in the constructors championship.

Stroll’s teammate, Felipe Massa, crashed out at turn three on the first lap after he was collected by Carlos Sainz, who had collided with Banbury-based Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

The Brazilian said: “I was a complete passenger in the collision.

“It’s a shame to finish the race like that, especially when the car has been so competitive all weekend and we could have scored a good amount of points.”

Grosjean went on to finish tenth, while Kevin Magnussen was 12th, but he was unhappy with the early incident involving Sainz.

He said: “We got there.

“I am very unhappy with Carlos’ manoeuvre at the start – what he did to me going into turn three. It was very, very dangerous.”

Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth for Enstone-based Renault, with teammate Jolyon Palmer just missing out on a point in 11th.

The German driver was pleased with the result and another top-ten finish.

He said: “Obviously we were helped by some DNFs.

“But nevertheless I found myself in eighth place and four nice points isn’t bad given this was a track where we were a bit worried on how good we were going to be.”