F1 News: How HUGE race error crowned Lance Stroll a grand prix winner

Jeremy Clarkson looks shellshocked as Lance Stroll smiles — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Off the Track

HUGE race error revealed that crowned Stroll an F1 winner

The issue occurred at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 13 March 2024 21:00

A mishap during an official Formula 1 race may have led to Lance Stroll picking up an extraordinary first grand prix victory of his career (sort of).

Canadian Stroll has been under immense scrutiny of late making a stuttering start to 2024, where he has picked up just one point from the opening two races having recently crashed out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after claimed a 10th place finish in Bahrain.

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Much of the criticism coming the 25-year-old's way is that his father owns the Aston Martin team, and has his son on a rolling contract.

It's alleged that mistakes such as the one which saw him crash out of last weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix don't impact his career as much as it would a different driver in that same seat. However, the Canadian may have benefitted from another person's mistake during the first race of the season.

Lance Stroll has never claimed an F1 race win

Chequered flag mishap avoids Verstappen

The 63-year-old may have accidentally crowned a different winner, however, with Stroll's Aston Martin being very close to Verstappen on-track due to being almost a lap down on the three-time world champion.

“Mercifully, I arrived in the pit lane, opposite the little flag box, as Max Verstappen began his final lap," Clarkson told The Sun.

“I was a little out of breath but even I could cross a road in the time it takes a Formula 1 car to do a whole lap.

Max Verstappen has claimed enough trophies

“And it was at this point that my equally merry girlfriend, Lisa, announced that she needed a wee.

“Right. I see. So we do what? Ask Max to park up at the back of the track until she’d finished?

“Even though he could have done that and still won, we decided not to chance it, hurried across the pit lane, plunged into the little box, took control of the flag. And waited for Max to appear round the last corner. Easy.

“But it was dark and in the time it takes to think, 'Is that a Red Bull?' the car was past me and I’m thinking: 'Oh s**t. It was a Red Bull.'

“So I was waving the flag as frantically as I could when I realised that it wasn’t a Red Bull.

“I’m told that officially, Max Verstappen won the race but the car that took the chequered flag? Well, I’ve checked the footage and I think it might have been Lance Stroll.”

Max Verstappen Aston Martin Lance Stroll Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Bahrain GP