Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi engage in war of words following a “ridiculous” and “awkward” qualifying crash in Australia

Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi engage in war of words following a “ridiculous” and “awkward” qualifying crash in Australia

Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi

The qualifying session for the Australian GP was quite eventful. We saw multiple red flags and cars going on gravel during the final session before the main race. And the highlight of the session was the crash between Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi. Stroll, himself, called the crash “awkward” and “ridiculous.”

Nicholas Latifi, while speaking to Sky Sports F1 and as quoted by racingnews365.com, said, “I let him through because he was pushing to open the lap, so I was told, and then I saw he’d aborted the lap, so I wanted to carry on with my own preparation lap, so I went back by him. There was a big gap and once I kind of got past him, for whatever reason, he does that at the turn. It’s clear for me on the video, [so] there’s not much more to say.”

Lance Stroll, in his defense, said, “We were on a cool lap. I saw the video; he went to try and pass me all of a sudden in a very awkward part of the circuit. The circuit falls off to the right and then to the left, where that is. I think what happened was just very awkward at an awkward part of the track. He was all of a sudden trying to cut by me and it gets narrower as the circuit falls to the right, and then we make contact. It’s pretty ridiculous.”

FS Video

Who is to be blamed? Nicholas Latifi or Lance Stroll?

Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll's crash
Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll’s crash

The incident took place on Stroll’s out lap and went immediately under investigation. The crash was hard and resulted in an immediate red flag for Q1.

After the race, stewards revealed their verdict. Lance Stroll was found guilty of causing the accident and was handed two penalty points on his racing license along with a three-place grid penalty, moving the driver to P19 for the race.

Lance Stroll’s penalty was given on the accounts of a “lack of situational awareness,” which has increased the woes for Aston Martin. The team, which had somehow managed to put Stroll’s car for the qualifying must put in efforts again to make it running for the race.

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