The Canadian made his return to GT racing for the opening round of the Endurance Cup season, sharing the #18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya.
It marked Stroll’s first appearance in tin top machinery since 2018 and his maiden start in an FIA GT3 homologated car, with the six-hour endurance race offering a steep learning curve across both day and night conditions.
The #18 crew qualified 15th but quickly slipped out of contention as the event unfolded. Boya dropped down the order in the opening stages before a collision triggered a stop-and-go penalty, compounding an already difficult start.
From there, the race unravelled further, with the team accumulating a total of eight minutes and 25 seconds in penalties. Those included repeated blue flag infringements and multiple track limits violations across the six-hour contest.
Stroll himself was responsible for several of those penalties, including sanctions for failing to respect blue flags and exceeding track limits, as he took over during the latter stages of the race in darkness.
Having taken the wheel with limited night running due to earlier technical issues, Stroll rejoined well down the order and ultimately brought the car home in 48th position, second-to-last of the classified finishers.
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Despite the result, there were positives to take from the weekend.
Stroll’s lap pace was competitive relative to more experienced GT drivers, at times matching some of the quicker runners on the grid as he adapted back to multi-class traffic and endurance racing procedures, with all of his running coming at night.
Speaking mid-event, the Canadian said he had been enjoying his experience in the category.
“It’s been an experience for sure,” he said.
“We had a bit of eventful evening. A few issues out there but, yeah, it’s been nice.
“We had a bit of time off with the Formula 1 schedule this month and I got together with some friends and we put a car together and have some fun this weekend so it’s been cool.”
While Stroll’s team endured a frustrating race, Aston Martin still celebrated victory as Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi prevailed, benefiting from a late safety car that neutralised the dominant Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer.
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