Lance has a tough weekend on his return to China

Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team driver, Lance Stroll, had a tough weekend during his return to Shanghai for the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix, where he’d previously finished P12 in 2019.

Practice

Lance began the Chinese Grand Prix weekend’s sole Practice by completing some solid running. The session was a chance to check the car and track, as well as learn more about the circuit’s very low grip. As this was the only Practice session, low grip meant there was lots of room for error as the track was yet to rubber in.

Practice was briefly interrupted by a small grass fire at Turn Seven and subsequent red flag. Following the session being green flagged, Lance found some good speed on the Soft tyre. He finished the session by setting the fastest time, classifying P1.

Ahead of Sprint Qualifying, it was important for Lance and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team to go through the data in order to be as prepared as possible.

WATCH: 2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX FP1 HIGHLIGHTS

‍

Sprint Qualifying

The track continued to evolve through the Sprint Qualifying, but low grip continued to affect drivers. As well as this, weather conditions added more unknown to the session.  

Amid reports of light rain, Lance’s first lap of SQ1 went well. He safely got through to the next Sprint Qualifying segment by finishing SQ1 in P9.

In SQ2, it was important to get a clear first timed lap due to reports of impending rain. Unfortunately, the rain affected Lance’s session, meaning he didn’t have time to complete a second push lap. He qualified P15.

WATCH: 2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX SPRINT QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

‍

Sprint

Starting from 15th, Lance and the team had limited options due to the short length of the Sprint, but they aimed to take learnings from Friday’s sessions to inform the remainder of the race weekend.

Opting for Medium tyres for the Sprint, Lance finished the race in P14.

WATCH: 2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX SPRINT HIGHLIGHTS

‍

Qualifying

Ahead of Qualifying, the team made some set-up changes which they hoped would pay off in Sunday’s race.

Lance safely got into Q2 by placing P11 in the first Qualifying segment. After a red flag in Q2, Lance missed out on getting through to the final Qualifying segment by a small margin of only 0.069 seconds. He started Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix from P11 and was well-placed to challenge for points.

WATCH: 2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

‍

Race

Starting from P11, Lance began Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix on the Soft tyre.

He made good progress in the opening laps and had moved up into points positions before making his first pitstop on lap nine. Opting for Mediums, Lance came out in P13.  

By lap 21, Lance was up to P8 and successfully holding off attempted overtakes by Carlos Sainz.

When the Virtual Safety Car period began, Lance chose to pit for Hards. The pit was timed well, but after the Safety Car ended on lap 27, Lance picked up unfortunate damage which led to him making a third pitstop.

After another Safety Car period ended on lap 31, Lance restarted the Grand Prix in P18.

On lap 34, he battled Kevin Magnussen for 16th place and was able to make the overtake stick, taking P16.  

Lance’s final pitstop took place at the end of lap 35, when he served a 10-second penalty and opted for the Hard compound tyre before finishing the race in P15.

His season will continue on May 3-5 with the Miami Grand Prix.

WATCH: 2024 CHINESE GRAND PRIX RACE HIGHLIGHTS

‍

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Aramco® Formula One Team driver:

We were on for a good result today. The Soft tyres had performed well at the start of the race and I made a couple of crucial overtakes to climb into the points. We timed our stop well under the VSC and I think ninth place was on the cards. Then, when the Safety Car came in, there was a chain reaction with all the cars ahead suddenly slowing. I didn't have enough time to react and avoid contact with Daniel [Ricciardo]. It's frustrating, because I ended up with the penalty, but the incident was caused by someone at the front of the pack braking suddenly. After the front wing change we were running last which meant our race was effectively over. It's a shame to lose out on the points, but we'll regroup ahead of another Sprint weekend in Miami.

‍