After pulling off the track on Lap 16 and triggering the deployment of the Safety Car, the Canadian driver quickly realised that his promising start was quickly fading.
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While Aston Martin is aware of the problem that led to Lance Stroll’s early retirement from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2023, they have not yet identified its source. After passing Carlos Sainz for P4 at Turn 13 on the first lap, Stroll was in the points race. However, after pulling off the track on Lap 16 and triggering the deployment of the Safety Car, the Canadian driver quickly realised that his promising start was quickly fading.
“We were just losing power every lap, like six, seven laps kind of thing, just a second and a half every lap and eventually it was game over,” said Stroll after the race. “They were [applying the fire extinguisher] on the brakes, but there was some smoke from the engine,” he added.
“It is a real shame that Lance was forced to retire early with an energy recovery issue, the cause of which is still being investigated, because he had strong pace and would surely have scored big points tonight as well,” said team principal Mike Krack.
An hour after taking away his 100th podium, the FIA have reinstated P3 in the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin and Formula One Twitter handles posted the news on the social media platform. The Spaniard has now scored consecutive podium finishes in the opening two races of the 2023 Formula One season and can be in the picture for a world championship come the end of the season.
It was a day of drama for Fernando Alonso, who probably thought he had earned his 100th career podium when he finished P3 on Sunday at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, his jubilation was soon turned to disappointment as the stewards placed a 10-second time penalty on the Spaniard after the end of the race.
Alonso was unhappy with the FIA’s decision, stating that the stewards had a lot of time to inform his team of the decision instead of waiting till the end of the race. The Spaniard was, however, defiant, saying that he would have opened up a gap of 11 seconds on the car behind had he known of the penalty. As a result, George Russell and Mercedes celebrated their first podium of 2023 as Alonso finished P4.
“It doesn’t hurt too much to be honest,” Alonso said as per Sky Sports. “I was on the podium, I did pictures, I took the trophy, I celebrated and now I have apparently three points less. I don’t have 15, I have 12. You cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pit stop. hey had enough time to inform about the penalty. If I knew that, maybe then I open up 11 seconds to the car behind.”
“Today, we didn’t put on a good show for our fans,” the Spaniard added. “I know the team is trying to review it with the stewards now because we didn’t understand fully the second penalty. I care, but I don’t care that much as I have celebrated and now I have three points less? OK, let’s try and recover in Australia.”
(Information from official Formula One website)
