A challenging weekend for Lance in Miami

Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team driver, Lance Stroll, had a challenging weekend at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

Practice

Lance’s first run of the weekend’s only Free Practice session was completed on a set of the Hard compound tyre. As the weekend’s sole Practice session, it was important for Lance and the team to maximise data capture and assess setup changes before the start of the Sprint sessions.

Towards the end of Practice, Lance took back to the track on Soft tyres to complete his final run. After setting a strong lap, he finished the session in P5.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX FP1 HIGHLIGHTS

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Sprint Qualifying and Sprint

Starting Sprint Qualifying 1 on Medium tyres, Lance got safely through to SQ2 in P13. He then placed P9 in the second segment, securing a place in SQ3.

With four minutes to go in SQ3, none of the drivers had set a time, meaning everyone had just one chance to set a lap. Lance used the out lap as a chance to get his tyres into the working window before setting a lap that saw him finish the session in seventh, starting the Sprint from the fourth row of the grid.

Lance opted for Medium tyres for the Sprint. However, an incident on the opening corner resulted in damage to Lance’s floor and suspension which forced his retirement.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX SPRINT QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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Qualifying

Lance used Soft tyres throughout Qualifying. He safely got through to Q2 with a strong lap, securing P10.

In Q2, Lance set a solid initial lap. After selecting a set of new Softs for his second run, he missed out on Q3 by only 0.22 seconds.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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Race

Beginning the Grand Prix from P11, Lance selected Medium tyres for his first stint.

At the end of lap 11, Lance made an early pit stop. He switched to Hard tyres and came out P17.

After a brief Virtual Safety Car on lap 23, Lance moved up to P15 after an overtake on Daniel Ricciardo. Shortly after, a Yellow Flag came out, followed by a VSC and then a full Safety Car. This period ended on lap 32.

While many drivers were able to take advantage of the flag and Safety Car periods, Lance’s strategy was compromised as he’d already made an early pit on lap 11.

On lap 45, Lance was looking to overtake Ricciardo. With a successful move down the main straight and into Turn 1, Lance moved into P15.

A series of overtakes followed. Lance passed Zhou Guanyu on lap 48 for P14 and later overtook Alex Albon for P13 on lap 52. However, following this, Lance received an unfortunate 10-second time penalty, resulting in him finishing the race P17.

His season will continue on May 17-19 with the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

WATCH: 2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS

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Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Aramco F1®️ driver, said:

It wasn't a great race today. We went for an early stop and then a few laps later the Safety Car was called, so the cars that had stayed out benefitted heavily from that. That really compromised our strategy. From that point I managed to pass a few cars and crossed the finish line in P13, but was then penalised for my pass on [Alex] Albon. We'll go through the onboards later, but it feels like a strange penalty. We'll be working hard over the next couple of weeks to find some more pace in the car for Imola.

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