Stroll says "everything went wrong" after weigh bridge mix-up and Q2 elimination

Lance Stroll says “everything went wrong” for him in qualifying after he was eliminated 14th in Q2 during Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

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While his Aston Martin team mate Fernando Alonso came within a tenth of a second of securing a stunning pole position, Stroll was eliminated in the second phase of qualifying in 14th place. He was over half a second slower than his team mate and will start 12 places behind Alonso.

Stroll blamed his elimination on a multitude of factors all converging during the second session that left him out of the top ten. He lost time being called to the weighbridge and ran wide at Rascasse on his final run.

“Just everything really went wrong,” Stroll told media including RaceFans. “Didn’t get the tyres prepared properly, we got called to the weigh bridge. A lot of things just went wrong. I missed turn 18 – I lost half a second there. Just everything went wrong.

“The potential was there, we were like third in Q1 and I was feeling good in the car and it just all went downhill in Q2. So I don’t know what happened.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Monaco, 2023 — **Gallery: Monaco Grand Prix qualifying day in pictures**

Stroll was called to the weigh bridge after his initial run in the second session but missed the turning to make the bridge, having to be pushed back by his Aston Martin mechanics. He is under investigation by the stewards for failing to adhere to weigh bridge procedure.

He described the incident as: “Just a miss and a push back, so nothing major.”

Starting in the midfield, Stroll admits he faces a difficult prospect during the race on Sunday. “I mean, here, it’s going to be tough tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s going to be about maybe going long, or pitting early and undercutting – one or the other. We’ll see. Hopefully a bit of rain mixes things up and we’ll see what we can do.”

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2023 Monaco Grand Prix

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7 comments on “Stroll says “everything went wrong” after weigh bridge mix-up and Q2 elimination”

Sviat
27th May 2023, 18:00

Will Lance ever acknowledge that he is no good and the team needs a better driver? Stroll is driving like he is still in last year’s Aston Martin. It’s time to look at the results and give up.

Gusm.ai
27th May 2023, 18:39
AM will have a very hard decision for 2026.
Given the current development and the Honda quality, they will have a winning car.
Comparison to ALO hurts but STR isnt driving like a winning racer.
ALO has a few years on him but at some point a new driver will arrive and there are a lot of people driving better than him on the grid today – maybe even Drugovich would perform better.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
27th May 2023, 22:57
Stroll is up against Alonso though who many claim to be up with the best. Alonso has the disadvantage of being new to the team, but Stroll also has the disadvantage of having no testing at all this year – and in that first race, he was not far off alonso at all on race day. On several others he’s been pretty close too. He’s not quite as bad as many seem to think. He does have some strengths and that is that he’s certainly a very good wet weather driver.

Nerrticus (@nerrticus)
27th May 2023, 18:46

It’s odd that they spring weighbridge demands on a driver with a second or two to react. Maybe I’m missing something on the process but not why relay the requirement to the team and the driver during Sector 2 or 3 of their inlap.

Not absolving Lance of blame but it feels like the system could be better.

Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
27th May 2023, 22:05
I agree. I’m not even sure what the purpose of this is, besides creating unnecessary stress for the driver. I presume the Team Principals find it easier to trust each other when cars are being weighed during the session. We frequently have this nonsense, where the Stewards believe the driver is completely at fault because the Stewards use this Jack in the Box “Surprise” method of telling the driver there car needs to be weighed. Why can’t they back up their inconsiderately placed last second visual cue with a radio based system, e.g the Stewards talking to the driver, or a visual dashboard message appearing when the car is several hundred metres from the weigh bridge? How difficult is that? It isn’t difficult, it just costs money. In my city the buses are fitted with a radio system which communicates with the traffic lights the bus is approaching so the phasing is made favourable for the bus. If my city can figure this out, then there’s no reason the combined abilities of the FIA and F1 can’t. So a driver, besides the last second visual alert, gets an audible or visual alert telling them they will need to visit the weigh bridge before they even apply the Pit Lane Speed limiter.