Lance Stroll has called his contact with Romain Grosjean at the start of the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix “a first lap racing incident” and admits his race was “pretty much over after that.”
Stroll and Grosjean made contact at the apex of turn two on the opening lap of the race and were both forced into making pit-stops. While Grosjean retired some laps later owing to floor damage, Stroll continued but finished a distant fourteenth.
“I haven’t seen the replay yet but I think the contact with Romain [Grosjean] was a first lap racing incident,” said Stroll. “Unfortunately we touched, there was damage, and I had to pit for a new nose.
“We were racing wheel-to-wheel and these things happen, but it was really costly because my race was pretty much over after that. We carried on racing and pushing, but we couldn’t recover after losing so much time.
Besides his early race contact Stroll points to Bahrain’s blustery winds as a challenge and admits his Racing Point F1 Team have got plenty of work to do before the next race.
“The wind had really picked up out there today, but everyone was in the same boat and after a few laps we got used to it. We finished the race and there is plenty to analyse, but we’ve got to see where we can improve before we get to China.”
