The least we can say is that Lance Stroll was hot at the wheel of his Aston Martin in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. The Quebec driver avoided disaster by losing control of his car on the second qualifying lap.
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In the enfilade of Turns 4 and 5, he said he touched the white paint on the side of the track and then lost control.
Miraculously, he kept his single-seater on track…almost unscathed. But he did visit the pit lane to have his front wing replaced, which grazed the low wall.
“Luck has turned. “It wasn’t an ideal session,” admitted the man who will start on the grid from 16th instead of 13th as planned in a press conference. At the beginning of the evening, the commissioners of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) actually penalized him with three places for obstructing the Frenchman Esteban Ocon in qualifying.
For the first time in his five visits to the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, he nevertheless made it into the second qualifying round. A small positive point on a hard day in the rain.
policy error
One of the reasons for that 13th place in qualifying, when his teammate Fernando Alonso placed his car in third place, was that Stroll’s team got the wrong drop with the weather.
When the single-seater was fitted with intermediate tires in the second qualifying round, slick tires should have been fitted. The pilot stated that he requested these tires.
“The track was dry and we stayed on the intermediates because we saw an episode of rain once during this session. It took about two or three laps, he said.
“We didn’t mount the slick tires at the right time,” he added. It’s our mistake of the day.
Joel Lemay / QMI Agency
Not only did the team start the second session poorly, but after his spin, during which he miraculously spared his car, the mechanics left the intermediate tires when he should have set off with the runners.
A decision sequence that was very costly as the driver failed to record a time that allowed him to progress to the final session.
“It wasn’t ideal and it was a tough session. This could have gone either way. It could have ended easily or badly. It was a strange day.
always possible
Stroll was calm in the press conference and didn’t express frustration with the situation. He was certainly disappointed with his performance but said he was positive about the race.
With so many opportunities to overtake, the Aston Martin driver wants to give everything to move up the table.
Joel Lemay / QMI Agency
“Getting points is the realistic goal for us. When you want more than that, it becomes difficult. But we have a fast car. If you use good strategy, anything is possible. And anything can happen in racing.”
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Stroll never did better than ninth place.