Lance Stroll’s grid penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix, explained

In recent years the Monaco Grand Prix has become something of a parade, as the combination of massive Formula 1 cars coupled with the narrow circuit have made overtaking nearly impossible. That means that Saturday’s qualifying session is arguably the most important of the year because if you want to win the Monaco Grand Prix, you want to start up front.

Unfortunately for Lance Stroll, he will start no higher than P2 after being handed a one-place grid penalty for an incident in FP1 on Friday.

Early in the session Stroll was approaching the hairpin corner, and after letting a faster car by him the Aston Martin driver turned back onto the racing line.

Where Charles Leclerc was fast approaching on a push lap.

Leclerc drove into the back of Stroll’s AMR25, and the impact brought out the red flag and caused damage to both cars. You can see the incident here:

After the practice session race officials heard from both Leclerc and Stroll, as well as team representatives. Stroll told race officials that while Aston Martin team members warned him of Leclerc approaching, he did not hear the message:

“The driver of Car 18 stated that although the team warned him of the arrival of Car 16, he did not hear the radio message and that led to the incident. We considered that Car 18 was wholly to blame for the collision. Car 16 was not in a position to avoid the collision that took place,” read the decision in part.

Officials then imposed a one-place grid drop for Stroll, in addition to one penalty point on his FIA Super License.

“In the circumstances, we imposed a 1 grid position penalty for the Race and 1 penalty point.”

That brings Stroll’s penalty tally to three points. If a driver receives 12 penalty points in a calendar year, they receive a one-race penalty ban.