24/05/2025 18:38
Lance Stroll has been issued a second grid penalty at the Monaco
Grand Prix after being deemed guilty of impeding Pierre Gasly
during qualifying. The Aston Martin driver was handed a one-place
grid drop on Friday after making contact with Charles Leclerc
during practice. Stroll gained the attention of the stewards once
again after qualifying when he got in the way of Gasly, who was on
a hot lap during Q1. The Canadian has been issued another grid
demotion - this time three places - for ruining Gasly's lap. "Car
18 was informed that Car 10 was arriving on a fast lap at Turn 10,"
read a statement from the stewards. "From the radio communications
it appears that Car 18 was not informed/reminded that Car 44 (whom
Car 18 had overtaken earlier in that lap) was also coming and that
Car 44 was going to overtake Car 18. "The driver of Car 18 assumed
wrongly that there was only one car to be let by and when Car 44
(which was not on a fast lap) went by him, he moved back to the
racing line thereby impeding Car 10 which was on a fast lap.
"During the hearing, the driver of Car 18 stated that he could not
tell the colour of the car that had overtaken him because of the
position of the sun, which we accepted. He therefore wrongly
assumed that there was no other car to be let by. In the
circumstances, we imposed the usual penalty of a drop of 3 grid
positions." Stroll ended the qualifying session in 19th place but
is set to remain there as Oliver Bearman will serve a 10-place grid
for a red flag infringement during practice.