Lance Stroll will not start the Singapore GP following his massive crash in qualifying which dealt heavy damage to both driver and car.
Stroll crashed into the wall at the final corner in the closing moments of Q1 at around 150 mph, ripping the front and rear end off of his Aston Martin and throwing the driver around in the cockpit.
While the Canadian was responsive after the incident, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said in a statement the scale of the repair job facing the team alongside the physical impact of the incident meant they had decided to pull him out of Sunday’s race.
“The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday’s accident – however, he is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash,” Krack said.
“Our priority now is that he makes a full and speedy recovery. Together, we have decided that he will sit out this evening’s race and instead focus fully on returning to the cockpit for next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.”
Chasing lap time
Explaining how the incident unfolded after the session, Stroll said that he was left chasing the lap in his final attempt in Q1 as he looked set for an early exit, which had caused him to go too hard into the final corner in an attempt to make up for lost time.
“I started my lap two seconds behind I think it was one of the Alpines,” Stroll said to the media. “Which is really not ideal for kind of aero performance and I was just not really improving my lap time much to get through to Q2.
“So I sent it in the last corner, I tried to make up some time and it’s not really doable. I know why I crashed. I mean, it was just because I wasn’t going fast enough to get through and therefore I tried to really send it.”
