Stroll delayed by flat-spotted tyre after lap one near-miss

2017 Australian Grand Prix

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Lance Stroll was forced onto a two-stop strategy after flat-spotting a tyre in a near-miss at the first corner in the Australian Grand Prix.

Williams’ rookie driver had to take evasive action at the first corner when he was caught out by how early the rest of the pack braked at the start of the race.

“I had a good start, a bit risky, there was some guys who braked quite early in front of me,” Stroll explained.

2017 Australian Grand Prix in pictures
“I managed to gain some places then I had a flat-spot so I had to stop early.”

“We changed to Plan B, going to the two stop, but we managed to find clean air. I was behind [Antonio] Giovinazzi for a few laps which maybe cost me a couple of positions against [Esteban] Ocon and [Nico] Hulkenberg when they came out of the pit lane.”

“I could’ve maybe got them if I didn’t have Giovinazzi but it’s so hard to overtake and that kind of cost me some time. But anyways it was a good race until what happened at the end.”

A front-left brake failure at turn 13 put him out with 17 laps to go. “I believe it was a disc failure, but we need to check,” he said.

“I hit the pedal and went long and couldn’t stop. I’m actually quite lucky it happened in the place it with a bit of run-off or else it probably wouldn’t have been so great.”

Stroll began the race on the back of the grid after crashing in final practice and failing to make it through Q1.

“Unfortunately that little tap yesterday against the wall cost us a lot of positions in qualifying,” he said.

“Today I think we were running a decent race, pace was pretty good even though it was a lonely race, P13 or whatever it was. Our pace wasn’t bad and we were running a solid race versus the people in front.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Stroll delayed by flat-spotted tyre after lap one near-miss”

  1. Andre Furtado
    26th March 2017, 14:32

    Money don’t buy you no skills. ‘Nough said

  2. So otherwise he would crashed again? but first corner i really thought he would smashed into some cars as he went for it.

  3. What a waste of seats! It’s a real shame to see a car capable of 6th trailing last and then abandon. He drove really badly and so far he’s clearly not F1 material. And looking at his erratic driving I fear he will provoke nasty crashes in the next races. Future Strollnado? But even Maldonado had some qualities that can’t be found in Stroll … A real pity.

    1. Geez. That’s a bit harsh. Give him some time. I don’t suspect he will be WC, but at least give him a season.

    2. Agreed @sputnik.

      It’s a shame as the Williams is a proper race car.

  4. The fastest car in a straight line with brand new tyres can’t overtake a car with a year-old engine. Not much hope for action in this formula…

  5. As a lifelong Williams fan I paid a lot of attention to Stroll over the weekend and I have to say his performance had me worried. He made so many errors: locked brakes here, running too deep there and he had another crash in FP3. It’s his first race so I don’t want to be too quick to write him off, but he will need to improve at a fairly rapid rate to justify his place in the team.

    He could cost Williams dear in the championship seeing as it is so close between Williams, Force India, STR, Haas and Renault. The FW40 looks a good car, but he needs to consistently score points if Williams are to be best of the rest come Abu Dhabi.

    1. @geemac

      He could cost Williams dear in the championship

      I agree but would he cost the team more than $80m in terms of prize money? Because that’s how much his dad is paying for his seat….

      1. The figure touted in respect of how much he is bringing to the team has varied wildly from what I have seen, but I haven’t seen it as high as $80m (+-£64m).

        That said, he does probably bring more than he will cost them but for a team who’s stated ambition is to return to winning ways, he isn’t good enough (yet).

  6. Yes, it’s still early days for him, so just let’s give him more time, but the first indications shows that maybe he should have spent another year in a feeder series to hone his skills, develop more consistency and avoid silly mistakes. He doesn’t look ready for F1 (and these cars are morec challenging to drive too).I’m sure that Paul Di Resta would be able to deliver straight away, I hope that he gets a chance again.

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