Aston Martin issue update on unwell Lance Stroll

Aston Martin have been forced into a driver change for the third and final morning of pre-season testing with Fernando Alonso replacing Lance Stroll.

The team reported on Friday morning that the Canadian “wasn’t feeling 100 per cent” overnight but that he would be in the car for the afternoon session.

Lance Stroll out, Fernando Alonso in

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Alternating sessions over the course of the three days at the Bahrain circuit between the two drivers, Stroll was scheduled to be behind the wheel of the Aston Martin AMR25 on the final morning of pre-season testing.

However, with the driver not feeling “100 per cent” overnight, Aston Martin have swapped the sessions with Alonso now in action in the morning.

The team will confirm later in the day whether Stroll is well enough to replace his team-mate for the afternoon’s running and wrap up the pre-season outing.

“Overnight Lance wasn’t feeling 100%. Fernando will now drive the car this morning and we’ll confirm our line-up for this afternoon in due course,” Aston Martin said in a statement to PlanetF1.com.

The team has since confirmed the Canadian is feeling better and is returning to the cockpit this afternoon to conclude the test for the team.”

Stroll spoke with the media including PlanetF1.com earlier this week, revealing Aston Martin had done a “lot” with the new AMR25 as they put lessons learned last season into play.

“Always an exciting time of the year when everything gets started again,” he said.

“Yeah, you know, a lot of work has gone into AMR25. Learning from last year, areas of the car that we think we could improve on.

“So yeah, we’ll see, still very early days. But yeah, it’s good to be back in the car.”

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