Lance narrowly misses out on points in Qatar Sprint weekend

Heading to the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, Lance hoped to put the misfortune of the Japanese Grand Prix behind him, at a circuit where he scored his best result of the season from 12th on the grid in 2021.  

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Practice

The first and only practice session of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend saw Lance set laps on the Medium compound Pirelli tyre and set a time that placed him P14 on the timesheets.

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Qualifying

With such a short amount of track time before qualifying, the heat was on and Lance’s first time was deleted for track limits. His second lap vaulted him up the order to ninth, but by the time the chequered flag waved, he sat P17 in the session.

WATCH: 2023 QATAR GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

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Sprint Shootout

Like many drivers in the session, Lance was caught out by the windy conditions and a snap at Turn 5 meant he finished the session in P18.

WATCH: 2023 QATAR SPRINT SHOOTOUT HIGHLIGHTS

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Sprint Race

Amidst the opening lap skirmishes, Lance made up two positions. After a brief Safety Car period at the end of the first lap, Lance gained a further position at the restart, before his progress was halted again by another Safety Car.

Lance navigated yet more chaos with another four-lap Safety Car period on Lap 11 and crossed the line in P13, some five positions above his grid slot.

WATCH: 2023 QATAR SPRINT HIGHLIGHTS

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Grand Prix

Prior to race start, Carlos Sainz recorded a mechanical DNS elevating Lance to P16 on the grid. The Lap 1 drama allowed Lance to climb three positions and he ended the first lap in P13.
Under an initial Safety Car period, Lance and the Aston Martin F1 Team opted to pit for Mediums and re-joined in P17.

A well-executed overtake on Kevin Magnussen elevated Lance to P16 on Lap 8, and by the time his next pitstop was due on Lap 22, a flurry of stops ahead meant he had risen to sixth.

Exiting the pitlane on Hard tyres, Lance began his climb through the order once again from P15. Just seven laps later, he was up into P10.

During the middle stint of the race, Lance had some superb scraps with Charles Leclerc, and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.

On Lap 40, Lance pitted for the final time from P10, feeding out into the pack in P13 with new Mediums on board.

With four laps to go, a titanic scrap unfolded between Lance, Gasly and Sergio Perez for ninth position. The Canadian driver came out of the three-way scrap on top to cross the line ninth. Unfortunately, with track limits penalties applied to his final race time, Lance dropped from ninth on the road to P11.

WATCH: 2023 QATAR GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS

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Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® Team driver:

"We finished ninth on track today, with track limit penalties demoting us to 11th. It’s disappointing not to take any points away having raced so hard in such physically demanding conditions. The temperatures we faced out there were extreme – more so than any other event – and there are lots of tight corners here so you’re constantly battling the g-forces. There are positives to take away though; the car had more pace today and the team made some good strategy decisions with the regulated tyre constraints. The team in the garage did a great job in such challenging conditions, too."