Lance Stroll Penalized: Clash with Ricciardo Draws Criticism and Penalty Points

At the restart on Lap 27, Stroll collided with Ricciardo causing significant damage to Ricciardo car and also affecting McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. The stewards attributed blame to Stroll for not anticipating the pace of the cars ahead and applying appropriate braking resulting in a 10 seconds penalty and two penalty points. Ricciardo criticized Stroll lack of responsibility while Stroll argued that the incident was exacerbated by a sudden slowdown caused by his teammate Alonso.

Stroll expressed disappointment with the penalty citing the unusual circumstances of the incident. Despite the setback, Stroll believed he was on track for a decent result given Aston Martin ongoing struggle to compete with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Alonso finished seventh after an attempted three-stop strategy but Stroll acknowledged the team’s need for continued improvement to become more competitive.