‘Tricky’ qualifying for Lance at Spa

Lance will start the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix in P20 after a challenging day in which he was unlucky to make Q3.

FP3 was another wet session and Lance began the session on the Intermediate Pirelli tyres, taking to the circuit five minutes into the session.

‍

Lance ended FP3 in sixth, lapping in 1.59.205 as he underlined his promising pace.

‍

The start of qualifying was delayed due to heavy rain and track conditions. Once conditions improved, the session got underway with Lance running Wet tyres.

‍

The Canadian completed nine laps of the Belgium circuit, delivering a 2.01.597 lap time to end Q1 in P13 and advance into Q2.

‍

In Q2, Lance had initially battled to make Q3 and lapped in 1.58.231.

‍

But a dry line was beginning to appear and the field would be partially decided by last-minute laps.

‍

Lance bolted on a new set of Intermediate tyres but he was unable to complete his outlap before the session ended, meaning he dropped down the order to P15 as rivals improved.

‍

Due to a five-place grid penalty after his lap-one clash in Hungary, Lance will start the Belgium Grand Prix from P20.

‍

Lance Stroll – Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team Driver
‍

“It is a difficult qualifying result to take. The car had felt good in the tricky conditions throughout the day, and the end of Q2 was crucial because conditions were improving all the time. We switched to a new set of intermediate tyres to try and capitalise on the situation, but we just ran out of time to begin a flying lap, which meant a lot of drivers around me were able to easily improve their times. We will look into how that happened and learn from it. It means we will start at the back of the field tomorrow [owing to the grid penalty from Hungary], but I still believe we can get a result tomorrow because this is a circuit on which you can overtake, especially if the weather continues to be changeable.”

The Belgium Grand Prix will take place on Sunday August 29 from 2pm BST.

‍