Lance Stroll retires from closing stages of Monaco Grand Prix

Following the cancellation of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend due to severe flooding in the Italian region, the Monaco weekend was next up on the calendar.

Lance began the weekend well – with two competitive Free Practice sessions on Friday, when the times were very close between many of the teams.

He was third-fastest in the final practice session before qualifying. He was able to safely make it out of Q1, setting the fifth-fastest time in the process.

However, in Q2, Lance encountered issues including a call to the weighbridge, traffic and damage sustained by debris from another car. All this meant that, despite setting fairly competitive times, he missed out on a shot in the top 10 shootout.

He started 14th on the grid for the race on the Hard tyre, and looked to make moves quickly. However, contact was made with Alexander Albon’s Williams and Lance dropped a couple of positions.

From there, on the twisty streets, it was very challenging to make up ground.

However, Lance was able to pull off a couple of great overtakes – including on Logan Sargeant at Rascasse and on Kevin Magnussen’s Haas coming out of the Nouvelle Chicane.

The threat of rain increased as the Grand Prix progressed, and by lap 50 it was wet on some parts of the circuit but not everywhere.

Lance was one of the first drivers to pit for Intermediate tyres, on lap 51.

However, a few laps later a worsening brake issue manifested itself and Lance unfortunately hit the wall, forcing him out of the race.

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

In all honesty, this wasn’t a race to remember. The first lap was pretty eventful – a lot of crashing; a lot of carbon-fibre flying everywhere! Those clashes left the car with a fair amount of damage but I was still able to have a go at some of the cars in front. And I pulled off a couple of passes, which was fun. But I was struggling a little to get the car slowed down even before the rain; then when it started raining the brake issues meant I just couldn’t stop the car. I think I hit the wall about five times out there, but it just wasn’t my day. Congratulations to Fernando for an excellent result – I’ll be aiming for a points finish at Barcelona next weekend. I’m already looking forward to Spain.

Lance will be back in action at the Spanish Grand Prix, held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday 4 June.