Challenging session for Lance in final Sprint of the season

Wasting no time, Lance took to the track in Free Practice Two on all three compounds of tyres, scrubbing in a set of each before returning and pitting for Hards.

Several laps later, he stopped and pit for Mediums, putting in a lap time of 1:16.968. At halfway through the session, he was running in 16 with 15 laps on his tyres.

He then pitted for Softs and despite improving on his lap time to 1:16.263, he ultimately couldn’t improve on his position, ending the session in 17th.

Following on from his qualifying position yesterday, Lance started the Sprint race in 15th on Soft compound tyres.

Within the first few corners after lights out, Lance was up to 12th improving to 11th by the end of the first lap.

By lap five of 24, Lance had put in his best time of 1:15.425 and was running steadily in position.

A battle with Sebastian Vettel on lap nine culminated in Lance pushing his team-mate onto the grass as he made a late move to defend Vettel’s advances.

He then lost two positions to Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, but managed to get himself back to 11th by lap 16 after re-passing Ocon.

Lance then lost positions after the race as the stewards penalised him with a 10-second time penalty for a dangerous manoeuvre during his battle with Vettel. This pushed him down the order to 17th which is where he will start the race on Sunday. ^‍‍

Lance Stroll – Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team Drive^‍

“I made a good start and gained a few positions on the first lap. Everything was looking positive, but then I started to lose a little bit of pace as the race unfolded – and that meant I dropped a couple of places battling in the midfield. We need to look at what happened there. We go again tomorrow – and anything can happen at this place.”