Lance Stroll had described his huge shunt with Fernando Alonso at the US GP as “one of those racing incidents where it all went wrong.”
A relatively last-minute jink to the left from the Canadian whilst defending from the Alpine driver caused a huge crash mid-race at COTA, with Alonso describing it as a “late move”.
After the incident was reviewed by the stewards, the FIA announced Stroll will be handed a three-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Mexican GP.
As the field bunched up after a safety car – which was brought out to retrieve a beached Valtteri Bottas – the Alpine closed up to the seventh-placed Aston Martin, with Alonso finding a slipstream on the back straight.
As the Spaniard moved left to overtake, Stroll slightly jerked to the left at the last moment in reaction, putting him directly in the path of the Alpine, which rode over the back of the Aston Martin at almost 200mph.
⚠️ SAFETY CAR! ⚠️
There’s a high-speed collision between Alonso and Stroll, and we have another Safety Car! Stroll is out of the race.
Both drivers are okay. pic.twitter.com/81IgKXe0iR
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) October 23, 2022
Stroll was sent into a fierce spin, whipping into the barriers on the right, whilst Alonso went airborne across the other side of the track and into the Armco.
Whilst the Canadian’s car was totally destroyed, Alonso was remarkably able to continue after changing his front wing under what would be a lengthy second safety car period, fighting back to finish seventh.
Later in the race, the Alpine’s rattled right mirror flew off due to the earlier impact – Alonso was retrospectively handed a 30sec penalty for not pitting to fix it, demoting him to 15th.
Alonso was audibly shaking, whilst strolling simply swore on the radio after confirming he was ok, before giving his side of the coming together afterwards – prior to the stewards’ decision.
“I went to defend, there was a difference in speed,” Stroll told Sky Sports after the race.