Lance Stroll despairs at P20 placing after ‘worst session we’ve ever had’ at Monza

Lance Stroll qualified slowest for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday, compounding an already difficult weekend for the Aston Martin driver.

The Canadian missed FP1 on Friday by making way for reserve driver Felipe Drugovich as part of the team’s mandatory rookie running for the season, but could not make up for lost time in FP2 by suffering a fuel system issue before he could turn a competitive lap.

With his weekend already hampered and one session to get his eye in before qualifying, he could not get out of Q1 and is due to line up last of the 20 runners on Sunday.

Lance Stroll bemoans ‘worst session I think we’ve ever had’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Speaking after his early exit from qualifying at Monza, he was not encouraged by the lack of grip he felt on the hard tyre – with all 20 drivers having to use that compound in Q1 as part of the alternative tyre allocation rules being trialled by F1 this weekend.

Stroll was reluctant to place his issues on not having driven on Friday, but acknowledged that Saturday did not go to plan for him at Aston Martin.

“It was definitely tricky, but I’m just not feeling any grip in the car,” Stroll told media including PlanetF1.com after the session.

“I’m not sure if it was [driving] no laps yesterday, it was just generally in the session just not getting to grips with it.

“But we’ve got to look into what happened because [it was the] worst session I think we’ve ever had.

“I mean, I didn’t do a lot yesterday, but I think it was still just maybe something going on today in the car that didn’t make sense.”

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When asked for more information on the hard tyre and whether or not using a softer compound would have offered him the grip he needed, he explained that it was the same for everybody and he ultimately did not get what he needed from the tyre.

“Everyone’s on the hard tyre,” he said. “I definitely felt the soft was much better in FP3 than on the hard just now, but it looked like everyone even on the hard tyre right now is able to go a lot quicker than the soft in FP3.”

When asked if he felt the afternoon was a one-off for him, he responded: “I hope so.”

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