Lance Stroll has been forced to sit out Friday’s second practice session at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix due to the suspension damage he sustained in the first session.
Aston Martin introduced what amounted to an almost entirely new car in Budapest, including a lighter chassis, all-new aero surfaces and a new rear suspension layout. But the team’s first test session with its AMR26 B-spec suffered a major setback after 36 minutes when Stroll’s rear suspension appeared to buckle on the exit of Turn 2, causing the Canadian to suffer a 360-degree spin, bringing out a red flag as he parked his car.
The damage was such that Aston wasn’t in a position to repair Stroll’s car in time for FP2, with the Canadian sitting out the second hour of practice.
“Unfortunately, Lance will not participate in FP2. There has not been enough time to repair the damage from FP1,” a team spokesperson confirmed at the start of second practice.
While Aston made changes to the rear suspension, team chief Adrian Newey suggested the failed part was not one of Aston’s upgraded components.
The rear suspension on Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin failed
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
“The area involved has actually not been changed,” Newey said, before it emerged Stroll would have to miss FP2.
“We are short on spares because the cladding and so forth is different, so there are some minor changes in that area, but in that sense it’s very unexpected.
“As you can imagine, everybody is feverishly trying to understand exactly what went wrong and what happened as we speak. It’s only once we have an understanding that we can comment on what we do next.”
In the hands of Fernando Alonso, the heavily revised Aston did prove to be a major step forward as the team aims for respectability after languishing at the back of the grid over the first half of the campaign.
The two-time world champion posted the 13th-fastest time in FP1, 2.5s off Charles Leclerc’s benchmark in the Ferrari. “The provisional results are promising,” Newey said.
“It’s only part of the package, so we’ll have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza and Baku. So, it’s the first part of our planned upgrade.”
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