Lance Stroll reportedly ‘lost his temper’ after qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, just hours before Aston Martin announced he had withdrawn from the event.

Stroll qualified 14th at the Barcelona circuit, where the Canadian driver was over half a second slower than his team-mate Fernando Alonso in Q2.

Did Lance Stroll lose his ‘temper’ after Spanish GP Q2 exit?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

In a statement issued to PlanetF1.com hours later, Aston Martin confirmed that Stroll would not participate in Sunday’s race due to pain in his hand and wrist, described as a legacy of the injuries sustained in a bike accident in early 2023.

Aston Martin said: “Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023.

“As a result his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”

However, a report by the BBC has since claimed that Stroll had ‘lost his temper’ after exiting qualifying with ‘word going around the paddock that Stroll had broken things in the garage and sworn at team members.’

An Aston Martin spokesperson responded: “Lance was upset.”

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But while the spokesperson reportedly said that the post-qualifying meltdown and the injury were unrelated, it did raise questions.

Questions that were put to team principal Mike Krack when he spoke to media including PlanetF1.com after the Sunday’s grand prix.

Asked if Stroll had ‘exacerbated the injury by smashing something on the table’, he replied: “No, no.

“First of all, I was on the pit wall and I have not heard anything. I think this is typical [media stories].”

With Stroll’s withdrawal not confirmed until Saturday evening, it meant Aston Martin weren’t able to field a second car in Sunday’s 66-lap race as F1 regulations state that a driver change cannot be made after qualifying.

Krack revealed that while he was aware that Stroll had been in pain for a while, and probably “more” than he admitted to, he was not aware of how much his driver was suffering until it became too much for the 26-year-old.

“It has been known already,” he explained.

“The whole thing started in 2023, if you guys remember, there was injuries, and over the last weeks, there was the mention of pain, or reducing time in pain.

“You do not ask the driver every five minutes: ‘Do you have pain?’

“You have a chat here with a physio, or hear a chat, and you understand that there are some small issues and the driver  and we have seen it with Lance in 2023 when he fought his way back.

“They [drivers] want to drive, they don’t want to be out.

“So very often, I think, they drive with probably more pain than they would even admit to be able to drive, because this is what they love to do.

“So over the last weeks, there was a mention here and there, but you’re never aware how much it is. And then the weekend, I think he was just getting too much.

“I think at the end of the day, Saturday after qualifying, Lance and his team decided it would be better to go and check, go and check again, and then the recommendation was better not to race.”

Conceding to the media present that they were “not speaking to a doctor”, Krack added that it was “difficult to predict anything or to say anything” about either the procedure Stroll would undergo or his recovery time.

“We will have to see what the next days are bringing,” he continued.

“So I understand that there will be more tests, more checks going on over the next days, and we will know more in the next in the coming days.

“At the moment, it’s really difficult to make to tell you how it’s going to go and what is going to happen in the next days, but we will find out.”

Aston Martin have several options available to them for a replacement should one be needed at the next race in Canada in reserve drivers Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne, while they also have access to Mercedes’ reserve Valtteri Bottas.

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