AUSTIN — Lance Stroll has been given a three-place grid drop at the next race in Mexico after the stewards found him “predominantly to blame” for his collision with Fernando Alonso at Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix.
The pair collided at high speed on the long straight between Turn 11 and Turn 12 after Stroll turned in to Alonso’s path just as the Alpine car started to pull level.
The front of Alonso’s car was sent high into the air before landing and glancing off the barrier.
Stroll’s race ended on the spot as his car was pitched into a spin and shed tyres and debris across the back straight.
“It was clear to us that the driver of Car 18 [Stroll] made a late move in reacting to the overtaking attempt by the driver of Car 14 [Alonso] by moving to the left,” the stewards statement said. “The stewards determine that the driver of Car 18 was predominantly to blame.”
However, Alonso said he did not blame Stroll, who will be his teammate next year at Aston Martin, for the collision.
“Honestly, when you see the thing on the TV it is a racing incident,” Alonso said. “We move at the same time to the left and that was the trigger of everything. I think it was very unfortunate for everyone.
“We were OK in the stewards’ room. I think it was more between our sporting directors than between us. I think we saw the incident with the same eyes and our sporting directors were seeing it with completely different eyes!
“When you are at 300 (km/h) those movements… in one tenth of a second you move 200 meters. So if you see it in slow motion and you go frame-by-frame he will move a little bit later than me.
“If you go normal speed, you see both cars more or less at the same time. That’s why after looking on TV I think there’s nothing you can do differently.”
Speaking to the media after the race, Stroll said he left plenty of space for Alonso.
“I mean, I definitely moved late, but there was a big difference in speed,” he said.
“I was judging more or less, kind of picking where he was behind me. But it’s not like I hit him on the side of his car. The impact is still his front wing to the rear of my car.
“I gave him plenty of room on the left of the track, so it’s not like I squeezed him or anything like that against a wall. He could have moved earlier and went more to the left. He didn’t have to get so close to me either.
“So, there’s a lot of different ways you could look at the incident.”