Stewards quickly demanded a ruling on the incident, placing full responsibility on Stroll. The Canadian received a 10-second penalty and two penalty points, bringing his total to seven over the last 12 months.
“We determined that car 18 should have anticipated the pace of the cars in front of it, particularly car 3, and should have prepared to brake accordingly,” the FIA race stewards ruled.
“If he had done that, he would have avoided the collision. So car 18 was primarily responsible for the collision that ultimately led to car 3 abandoning the race.”
Stroll’s actions were also criticized by Ricciardo, who said the Canadian’s lack of accountability “made my blood boil.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“I think it’s just because of the fact that I hit the guy,” Stroll said when asked by Autosport why he said the penalty was a joke on his team radio.
“I got a penalty because of the end result when I hit Ricciardo, but it’s not like everything was normal and I just hit him in the back.
“There was a really strange concertina effect that I would have liked to see the stewards take into consideration maybe a little more.
“Someone braked at the front of the pack and then everyone stopped. The car in front of me just stopped from 60 to zero. It was one of those stupid incidents.”
“I was in his gearbox and ready for the restart, and it was just very unlucky. We were having a good race so it’s a shame.”
Alonso finished seventh after attempting to make three stops, but his progress through the field during the final stint came to a halt when he came in seventh.
Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We were eighth or ninth, which is pretty normal considering where the car is,” Stroll said.
“We’re not bad, we’re improving. We seem a little stronger on a Saturday than on a Sunday.
“We have to keep making improvements and try to be a little faster every weekend, but we can fight.”
