Complicated Qualifying for Lance in Suzuka

With clear air and a track temperature of 30 degrees, Lance hit the circuit less than five minutes into the third Practice session on Soft tyres.

Managing a best time of 1:36.382, he got himself up to third at this time.

Completing 10 laps on his first stint, he dropped down to 12th as he went in for his first trip back to the garage.

With 26 minutes remaining on the clock, Lance came back out, this time on the Medium compound, completing seven laps in total and besting his lap time to 1:33.517.

After quick change of tyres, Lance reverted back to Softs, rounding off FP3 with another eight laps and a lap time of 1:31.838. He finished the session in tenth, ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Qualifying was less successful for the Canadian driver, as Lance struggled to put in a top lap time during Q1 as he locked up in his second run at the Turn 11 hairpin. However, he improved on his personal bests in the first and third sectors on that lap.

Despite managing what was then 14th and looking set to make it to Q2, he was pushed down the order as other drivers completed their flying laps, eventually ending in 19th, ahead of William's Nicholas Latifi.

Lance Stroll – Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team Driver

“Unfortunately, I locked up in the hairpin at Turn 11 and lost three tenths, and that was the difference between us making it out of Q1 today. However, the car was good to drive, and it was great fun out there driving Suzuka in the dry once again. It is not ideal to be starting from 19th, but tomorrow is a new day and we will see what we can do in the race. If the weather does turn wet again as it did on Friday, it will provide some good opportunities for us to move up the order.”