Lance Stroll was left frustrated by a Monaco Grand Prix qualifying session in which he claims “everything went wrong”.
Stroll underlined the potential of his AMR23 as he was fourth quickest in the initial segment of qualifying only to end up a lowly 14th on the grid, in stark contrast to team-mate Fernando Alonso who finished just 0.084s adrift of pole position.
“Just everything really went wrong,” lamented the Canadian driver. “We didn’t get the tyres prepared properly, we got called to the weighbridge.
“I also missed turn 18 – I lost half a second there. Just a lot of things went wrong. A tricky day.”
Stroll was summoned to the stewards for an alleged weighbridge procedure infringement, which ultimately resulted in no further action being taken.
The stewards said they were “satisfied that the team followed the procedure in bringing the car back to the weighbridge without working on the car”.
The incident occurred after Stroll’s initial run in the second session when he missed the appropriate turning for the weighbridge, leading to his team of mechanics being forced to rush to his aid and push him back into position.
Stroll said what occurred was “just a miss and a push back, so nothing major.”
But with the 24-year-old starting so far down the grid, he recognises he faces a difficult race day unless the weather intervenes, with the forecast offering only a 30 to 40 percent chance of rain.
“It’s going to be tough tomorrow,” said Stroll. “The potential was there, we were like third in Q1 (fourth) and I was feeling good in the car. It just all went downhill in Q2. So I don’t know what happened.”
Looking ahead to the race, he added: “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.”