Lance Stroll took no joy from qualifying ahead of Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso for the first time in 42 grands prix at this weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Alonso’s grand prix qualifying streak over Stroll dates back to the 2024 British Grand Prix, although Stroll did qualify ahead of Alonso during sprint qualifying in China last year.
Aston Martin and engine partner Honda have made a disappointing start to life under Formula 1’s new regulations this season, and qualified on the back row of the grid for Sunday’s race in Spain.
Stroll managed to beat teammate Alonso to 21st on the grid by 0.057 seconds, but was over a second off the pace of the slowest of the two Cadillacs, Valtteri Bottas, in 20th.
Asked how qualifying went, Stroll answered: “Not so good.”
When asked if it meant anything to him to outqualify Alonso, he added: “No. I don’t care.”
Pushed on whether it would have been more of an achievement if they were fighting at the front of the grid, Stroll said: “I don’t know. I don’t give a s---.”
Alonso explained that he was suffering from his rear axle locking under braking in some corners and a sensation that the engine was still powering the car forward as he entered others.
He also played down the record over Stroll and pointed to his teammate’s more equal qualifying record against four-time champion Sebastian Vettel before Alonso joined the team as proof of how good the Canadian is.
“I mean I had huge rear locking and push on the engine, I don’t know what his car had,” Alonso said. “Our engine and gearbox are a little bit random so maybe it was for both cars or maybe not but for my car, my case, for sure, I had a lot of rear locking under braking in some corners and the opposite, a lot of push, like half throttle open in some other braking zones -- it was not easy to drive the car, it has not been easy the whole weekend.
“And you know, Lance is much more often closer than what it feels and even in front of me more often than what we remember. It was a good run now from 40, 39, or whatever quali[fying] sessions, but in some of the sprints that didn’t count -- he was in front and he was half and half with Sebastian, so Lance is a very fast driver.”
Aston Martin is not expecting to bring any major upgrades to its car until after F1’s summer break and Stroll confirmed he was in a “holding pattern” until then.
“We need to wait for the upgrade package,” he said.
