Lance Stroll avoided serious injury after suffering a horrifying crash in the final moments of Q1 in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll lost control of his AMR23 and slammed into the barrier at the Marina Bay track’s final turn after the Canadian overcorrected upon brushing the curb on the outside of the corner.
The Aston Martin car was flung back onto the circuit after being launched into the air on impact, forcing Lando Norris, the McLaren driver who was following behind Stroll on the track at the moment of the incident, to take evasive action.
The impact of the crash was also so great that the tyre tethers, which are meant to keep the tyres attached to the car in the wake of a crash, to break. The crash also tore a part of the sidepod off the car.
Fortunately, Lance Stroll escaped the horrific incident during qualifying for the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix unhurt.
“Lance, car is safe. Are you OK?” Stroll was asked by his race engineer over team radio.
“Yeah, I’m OK,” Stroll answered, then rose from the wreckage and proceeded to exit the car.
The Aston Martin driver walked unaided to the FIA Medical Car and after being examined at the medical center, was given the all-clear to carry on with the rest of the weekend. Later, Norris could be heard over the team radio asking his McLaren teammates if Stroll was okay.
The FIA promptly brought out the red flag before repairing the barriers and clearing the track of any fluid.
Replays also revealed that Stroll was able to free his hands from the wheel just before impact, sparing him from fracturing his hand like Daniel Ricciardo did in Zandvoort.
“Lance crashed during qualifying of the Singapore GP,” an Aston Martin statement read. “He got out of the car unaided and was taken to the medical centre for a precautionary assessment.
“Lance was cleared by the on-site medical team and returned to the team at track. The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team pay tribute to ongoing work of the FIA and the safety measures of current F1 cars.”
Stroll was last on the timesheets when the incident took place, and the FIA had delayed the start of Q2 by about 30 minutes in order to clean up fluid that had spilled on the track and do barrier checks and repairs.
Stroll was also eliminated from Q1 along with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Williams driver Logan Sargeant, and the Alfa Romeo duo of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Stroll’s incident comes in the midst of a dismal run of performances for the Canadian, whose position at Aston Martin is under mounting scrutiny as a result of his troubles in 2023 alongside his teammate Fernando Alonso.
The 24-year-old had a particularly challenging experience in his previous race at Monza. A technical issue in FP2 prevented him from recording a lap on Friday after Felipe Drugovich, the backup driver at Aston Martin, took his spot in FP1. Stroll ultimately qualified last for the Italian GP the following day.
Alonso has claimed a podium finish in precisely half of the 14 races so far in 2023, leaving Stroll 123 points behind him going into the Singapore Grand Prix. However, Stroll hasn’t finished higher than fourth in any race this season; his best finish came in Australia in April.
