Lance Stroll “upset” but injury forcing F1 Spanish GP withdrawal “unrelated”
Lance Stroll was "upset" about his early qualifying elimination at the Spanish Grand Prix, it has emerged.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was “upset” after qualifying at the F1 Spanish Grand Prix but the injury which led to his withdrawal is “unrelated”.
Stroll lost his temper and is said to have damaged equipment in the garage and sworn at Aston Martin team members after being left disappointing to have only qualified 14th at Barcelona, as first reported by BBC Sport.
The Canadian pulled out of Sunday’s grand prix due to wrist pain but Crash.net have been informed that Stroll’s episode in the garage and the injury are “unrelated”.
Asked to confirm if Stroll had lost his temper, an Aston Martin spokesperson told Crash.net: “He was upset with the result.”
Aston Martin confirmed on Saturday evening that Stroll would miss the race after “experiencing pain in his hand and wrist”.
It is believed to relate to the procedure Stroll underwent in 2023 after a cycling accident before the season began.
Stroll fell off his bike and broke both his wrists, forcing him to miss pre-season testing. However, he recovered in time to take part in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
He will now undergo surgery to try and rectify the pain he has recently been struggling with.
It is currently unclear whether Stroll will be fit to contest his home race at the Canadian Grand Prix on 15 June.
Aston Martin’s head of trackside engineering Mike Krack explained that Stroll’s condition worsened this weekend.
“I think everybody will remember 2023 when Lance had his issues after the mountain bike incident, where he was in terrible pain," Krack told SiriusXM.
"He had a procedure done at the time and over the last weeks he was always mentioning pain and it didn’t go away. It got worse and worse, and obviously Lance being a racer, he was probably in much more pain than he was really telling us and his medical team.
"Yesterday we came to a point where it was getting too much. He went very quickly to have further checks done and the decision was taken that it is better for him not to race.
"Drivers are hard and racers. We have seen in 2023 how tough he was and I’m sure he was in much more pain than he was telling us. I always have to laugh when people question the commitment. He desperately wants to drive and to go to that point after qualifying and say ‘I need to get myself checked’ - that shows how hard these guys are.”
Krack is set to face more questions from the media in the aftermath of Sunday’s grand prix at Barcelona.
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