Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll FP1 crash prompts FIA penalty

Lance Stroll will start one place back from his qualifying spot following a crash with Charles Leclerc in FP1 of the Monaco GP.

Stroll was seemingly unaware of Leclerc’s presence as he pulled back into the fast lane during the opening practice for the Monaco GP, giving Leclerc no time to react as they collided into Turn 6.

Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll crash in Monaco FP1 incident

Early in the opening session, Stroll moved out of the fast lane on approach to the hairpin to allow a driver by but pulled back in just as Leclerc was arriving.

Unable to stop in time, Leclerc hit the back of Stroll’s car, destroying the front wing of the Ferrari and causing significant problems to the Aston.

It was Stroll who came out worse, with a gearbox change needed, and the stewards have now determined that he was at fault for the incident.

They said: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 18 (Lance Stroll), the driver of Car 16 (Charles Leclerc), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 18 cut across the path of Car 16 at Turn 6 causing Car 16 to collide into Car 18. Car 16 suffered damage as a result.

“The driver of Car 18 stated that although the team warned him of the arrival of Car 16, he did not hear the radio message and that led to the incident. We considered that Car 18 was wholly to blame for the collision. Car 16 was not in a position to avoid the collision that took place.

“In the circumstances, we imposed a 1 grid position penalty for the Race and 1 penalty point.”

Leclerc was able to get his car back to the pits but did so with half of his front wing stuck underneath him, potentially causing damage to the floor of his SF-25. Stroll, meanwhile, played no further part in the session.

Speaking shortly after, Aston team principal Andy Cowell said the team was not clear enough,

“Our radio call wasn’t clear enough, is the bottom line,” he said. “So we need to learn from that.

“Rear wishbone broken, damage to the floor and so the best option is to change the gearbox, because we set up two gearboxes yesterday, ready for that sort of scenario.

“The downside is that Lance, you don’t get FP1 back so it’s those laps that he’s missed in terms of setup and learning.”

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