Lance Stroll and his team-mates copped a massive amount of penalties in a GT race at the weekend.

After Max Verstappen’s disqualification, Lance Stroll also had a tough welcome back to GT racing (Image: Getty)

As Aston Martin endure a very difficult start to the new Formula 1 season, with a slow and unreliable Honda engine and also concerns over problems with their chassis, Lance Stroll will have hoped for some respite as he made a temporary switch to GT racing during this gap in the F1 calendar. However, there was little to be found.

Because while it was an Aston Martin car that won the first round of the new GT World Challenge season, which took place at Circuit Paul Ricard in France at the weekend, it was not the one that Stroll was sharing with his team-mates, former Manor F1 driver Roberto Merhi and current Formula 2 starlet Mari Boya.

Their entry, the number 18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin, finished the six-hour race down in 15th place in the Pro Cup class – 48th overall – their efforts hampered significantly by more than eight minutes’ worth of penalties picked up for multiple offences throughout the contest. Stroll, making his competitive GT3 racing debut, was responsibly for nearly three minutes.

He racked up one minute for failing to respect blue flags and move quickly enough off the racing line to allow a faster car to lap him. Another 115 seconds’ worth of penalties were accrued by the Canadian for several track limits violations. In total, the #18 car picked up four minutes of penalties for blue flag incidents and three minutes and 40 seconds for track limits. A stop-and-go penalty incurred by Boya, for causing a collision, took the total over eight minutes.

There were certainly mitigating circumstances for Stroll. He drove only the final stint, which took place at night and technical problems on the car meant he went into it with very limited experience of driving the car in the dark. The car had qualified 15th but was running down in 38th by the time Boya and Merhi had finished their stints. And then gearbox problems led to him retiring the car late on, 13 laps down on the leaders.

But those factors outside of Stroll’s control will not have dampened the disappointment with how the event went for him. His luck was as poor as that of Max Verstappen, who also recently experienced a blow in his own go at GT racing when he and his team-mates were disqualified from a GT2 race at the Nurburgring several hours after winning it.

Stroll said he had spoken to Verstappen about GT racing before deciding to have a go at it for himself. The Canadian said: “We talked about whom to contact and, since he’s already involved in GT racing, we discussed it a bit. Everyone enjoys driving GT3 cars – they’re fun.”

Stroll’s first competitive drive of any GT car since 2018 looks likely to be his last for a while with the resumption of the F1 season coming in early May. But Verstappen does intend to take part in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring later next month, between the Miami and Montreal F1 races, with team-mates Dani Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Lucas Auer.