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Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team driver, Lance Stroll, made up places to finish 12th after a challenging race at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.
Practice
On Friday, Lance worked to gather data for the team. In Free Practice One, he ran upgraded sidepods and conducted a series of tests to analyse their performance. After aero rake troubles interrupted his running, he finished the session in 15th.
A rainy FP2 meant Lance didn’t set any laps in order to save his allocated Intermediate tyres for potential showers forecasted on Saturday and Sunday.
Following the tests Lance ran on the upgraded sidepods, the team worked overnight to implement the element to both cars ahead of FP3, where Lance placed 16th.
Qualifying
Later that day, he narrowly missed out on Q2 after falling 0.061 seconds off the second segment of Qualifying, meaning his session came to an early end. With work to do ahead of the Grand Prix, Lance planned to make the most of any opportunities that came his way on Sunday.
WATCH: 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS
Grand Prix
The Canadian started the Grand Prix on Medium tyres from 16th. Following a crash and subsequent Red Flag on the opening lap, he began the race restart in 15th and opted for a set of new Softs.
By lap three, Lance had made it up to 13th after a strong restart. He made even more progress on lap six after overtaking Esteban Ocon for 12th.
After making up more places, Lance pitted from ninth at the end of lap 12 for a set of Mediums.
The high tyre degradation of Suzuka Circuit meant Lance had to pit again at the end of lap 22. He came out of the pits in 13th with the Hard compound.
During his final stint of the Grand Prix, after pitting again on lap 34 for a set of Softs, Lance pulled off a series of strong overtakes.
On lap 47, he overtook Valtteri Bottas for 12th before overtaking Kevin Magnussen on the same lap for 11th.
Unfortunately, Lance was unable to catch up to 10th place to claim points due to the lack of grip from the Soft compound tyre, and after a challenging race, finished in 12th.
His season will continue on April 19-21 with the Chinese Grand Prix.
WATCH: 2024 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX RACE HIGHLIGHTS
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Aramco® Formula One Team driver:
"It was a difficult race today. Starting from P16 meant we had a compromised strategy and struggled to find any clean air. We also lacked the straight-line speed we needed. I did make some good overtakes at Turn 6 though, so that made for some fun racing. We were hoping to catch Yuki [Tsunoda] for P10, but the soft tyres just didn’t have the grip towards the end of the race, so it was disappointing not to finish in the points. We’ll take these learnings into China in a couple of weeks’ time."
Suzuka
