Lance Stroll’s Formula 1 career will begin with a grid penalty as Williams had to change his gearbox following his FP3 crash.


Stroll brought out the red flags in the closing stages of final practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

Stroll clattered the wall at Turn 10 after losing the rear and sliding wide, something he put down to "snap understeer". That left Williams with a frantic repair job in the two hour gap before qualifying, something which included a gearbox change -- meaning the Montreal born teenager is set for a five-place grid penalty.

Stroll admits he was "very uncomfortable" with his car's new set-up on Saturday before the FP3 crash which contributed to him being last on the grid for his debut race.

The team repaired the car in time for Q1 but Stroll could only finish 19th in the limited time he had on the circuit, while teammate Felipe Massa finished an impressive seventh, leaving the Canadian rookie reflecting on an opportunity missed.

"It's disappointing but I'm not looking at the result in a positive or negative way," he said "I think it's disappointing knowing where we could be, or are, with pace. We were half a second quicker in FP1 than we just were there in qualifying, so there's a lot more from us that we could of delivered. The whole day was kind of screwed up I think by the hit, it created a rush to qualifying and we got the car ready very late, we just couldn't get the running we wanted."

Stroll says he had been happy with the balance of his car on Friday but believes overnight set-up changes were crucial.

"I think FP1, FP2 were our best sessions and I think I got up to pace really quick. Then just starting today I was just very uncomfortable in the car and I still don't know why that is exactly we're still looking into it. It's been a really rough day for me in the car, I lost a lot of confidence overnight starting today in FP3, especially on the rear.

"I just find the rear is moving around a lot more than yesterday and I'm pushing the car a little bit harder to try and get the lap time versus yesterday where it was coming to me easier. I think it's just a day to forget and I'm very confident if we would have done a two set Q1 like everyone else, two sets of ultra softs, we would have had a much better day. Sometimes one little bad thing leads to a few problems, so it's still a long race ahead."

Despite seeing Massa progress to Q3 in the other Williams, Stroll thinks his limited experience on the Albert Park circuit would have prevented him making it that far through qualifying.

"I definitely think P12 or P13 was where we could be looking at yesterday and what was possible and just where we know our pace is. For sure I'm a bit off Felipe at the moment, he's been here a lot and he has some experience on me at this track so I'm still playing catch up. I know that our pace is much better than what we did in qualifying."

Stroll's grid penalty means he will swap places with Renault's Jolyon Palmer and start 20th.