‘He could have moved earlier’: Lance Stroll refuses to take full blame for ‘deadly’ crash with Fernando Alonso
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Fernando Alonso (L) Lance Stroll (R)
On lap 22 of the United States Grand Prix, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso had terrible contact on the back straight. Fernando Alonso’s car was airborne for some time, before colliding with the barriers on the left. While Alonso was able to continue, Stroll could not. But it did not turn out well for Alonso either.
This was a loss of valuable points for both of them, as, despite the Spaniard’s recovery to P7, he was handed a 30-second post-race penalty for his car being in a dangerous condition on the track. For the collision, the Canadian driver has been given a 3-place grid penalty for the next race, but he thinks he does not take full blame for the incident.
As per Autosport, Stroll acknowledged that he moved late, but: “I mean, I definitely moved late, but there was a big difference in speed. I was judging more or less, kind of picking where he was behind me. But it’s not like I hit him on the side of his car. The impact is still his front wing to the rear of my car.”
Lance Stroll calls the incident with Fernando Alonso a ‘shame’
It was certainly a very bad accident for both, with the Aston Martin car being left stranded on the track and with lots of debris present. It necessitated a safety car, which gave Fernando Alonso less of a disadvantage than it normally would have. While people are blaming Lance Stroll for the incident, he personally feels that he gave Alonso enough room.
Stroll said that the Spaniard ‘could have moved earlier’: “I gave him plenty of room on the left of the track, so it’s not like I squeezed him or anything like that against a wall. He could have moved earlier and went more to the left. He didn’t have to get so close to me either. So, there’s a lot of different ways you could look at the incident.”
The Canadian ultimately called it ‘a shame’ – close wheel-to-wheel battle resulting in contact. Next year, the pair of them will be teammates, and such an incident can always flare tensions, but Stroll feels the crash will not affect his relationship with Alonso: “I don’t look at it that way. We’re racing drivers. It can happen in a race.”
Due to the two-time world champion’s post-race penalty, Stroll’s current teammate, Sebastian Vettel will be upgraded to P7, which are certainly valuable points as his means they are just 1 point behind Alfa Romeo, but it could have been better if the German did not have a slow pitstop. Meanwhile, Alonso’s teammate, Esteban Ocon was also upgraded to P10.
Also Read: “FIA, YOU’RE A SHAME” F1 Fans furious with Fernando Alonso’s 30-second post-race penalty
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