2023 has not been kind to Lance Stroll and that continued today as he had a huge crash at the end of Q1 in the Singapore Grand Prix.
After confirming he was “feeling okay”, Stroll explained that he went over the limit in the final corner to try and gain time as he wasn’t on course to make Q2.
On his final attempt, Stroll added he was in the dirty air of an Alpine during the lap. After two sectors the Canadian was over 0.3s off the time set by the last car who was heading through at that point.
“No, I think we were pretty slow, just with the outlaps being really bad with a lot of traffic and stuff. We didn’t have any temperature in the tyres throughout the whole of Q1.
“And then so I started the lap like two seconds behind a car in front of me, I think it was the Alpine, so that we were losing a lot of downforce and also bad tyre prep, and I saw we weren’t really going through to Q2 in the last couple of corners, so I really pushed in the last corner to try and make up some time to see if something magical could happen and find some time to go through.
“It just didn’t stick, and yeah, that was it.”
Stroll’s session certainly wasn’t helped by the fact he got blocked by Logan Sargeant on the first lap of his first run.
“Yeah, fully got impeded while I was pushing.
“[It hurt my session] a lot, because then I had to abort my first lap of the first run, and then I went around again, and then the tyres are really just good for one lap around here, so then I didn’t get the same kind of grip level for the second lap. I had to do it on older tyres.”
Stroll was left puzzled by Sargeant’s driving as he believed the Williams driver was pushing at a decent speed to get back into the pits but didn’t get out of the way.
“It was weird, he was pushing, I think, to try and get back in the pits. But he was right in front of me, so I was still pushing, thinking he was going to get out of the way up until halfway through the lap, and then I realised he just wasn’t getting out of the way.
“So yeah, it really affected my session.”
For a second consecutive race, Stroll is due to start at the back of the pack. He believes there will be no problems with rebuilding the car and starting the race.
“I assume, yes. I mean, I haven’t really spoken to the guys on what needs to be done overnight, but yeah, I think it’ll be OK.”
On Sunday afternoon, however, it was confirmed by the team that Stroll would not take part in the race.
“Following Lance’s crash in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, Lance and the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One®️ Team have jointly agreed that he will not participate in this evening’s race. The team face a huge job repairing the car today and Lance is still sore following such a high impact. Lance’s focus now shifts to fully recovering ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Mike Krack: “The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday’s accident – however, he is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash. Our priority now is that he makes a full and speedy recovery. Together, we have decided that he will sit out this evening’s race and instead focus fully on returning to the cockpit for next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.”
Photo credit: Aston Martin Aramaco Cognizant F1 Team
