Pit lane to points for Lance in United States Grand Prix

After narrowly missing out on points in the Qatar Sprint Weekend, Lance and the team headed for the Circuit of the Americas and the United States Grand Prix with the hopes of avoiding a repeat of his 2022 race-ending incident.

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Practice

In the first and only practice session of the weekend, Lance’s car suffered braking issues that meant he could only complete five laps of running with the new updates Aston Martin F1 Team had brought to this race.

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Qualifying

After minimal running in practice, Lance made an early exit from Q1 recording P19 on the timesheets.

WATCH: 2023 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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Sprint Shootout

Saturday brought with it a turning of the tides as Lance displayed top-ten pace in Shootout 1, eventually finishing the session P12.

During his final run in Shootout 2, Lance locked his front wheels in the braking zone for Turn 12 which meant he ultimately finished the session in P14.

WATCH: 2023 UNITED STATES SPRINT SHOOTOUT HIGHLIGHTS

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Sprint Race

On the opening lap, Lance gained a position and came out on top in a three-car battle between himself, teammate Fernando Alonso and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, as the trio went three-wide down the back straight.

Lance also made his way past Daniel Ricciardo and up to P12, before dropping back behind the Alpha Tauri and Alonso, then retiring the car with brake problems.

WATCH: 2023 UNITED STATES SPRINT HIGHLIGHTS

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Grand Prix

Having made setup changes to the car to improve the performance of the updates, Lance started from the pit lane and was one of only two drivers to start on the Hard tyre.

That strategy served him well in the first stint and with others pitting around him, Lance ran as high as ninth before he pitted on Lap 21. Re-emerging in P16 and with fresh Medium tyres onboard, he began moving through the field once more.

By Lap 40, Lance was up to eighth, before pitting for another set of Mediums. Some eight laps later, he mounted a charge round the outside of Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 12 for 10th.

Floor damage for Alonso in the closing stages promoted Lance one position further to ninth where he stayed until the chequered flag. With post-race penalties applied to both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Lance was seventh in the final classification.

WATCH: 2023 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS

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Lance Stroll – Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team Driver (before application of post-race penalties)

“Finishing ninth after starting from last in the pitlane is a positive result after a tough couple of days here at COTA. It’s good to be back in the points after some difficult races. The set-up changes we made to optimise the performance have definitely put us in the right direction; we were much more competitive today. I had good grip in the corners, especially once we fitted the Medium compound, and I was able to make a few good overtakes going into Turn 12. We’ll be working hard to take this momentum into Mexico next week.”