Lance Stroll is desperate for a good result at the Spanish Grand Prix, with the Canadian trailing nearly a second behind team-mate Fernando Alonso on Friday.
Stroll has had a disappointing start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, to the point that many are starting to wonder if he will own Aston Martin.
While Alonso scored five podiums in the first six races, Stroll’s best result this year was fourth at the Australian Grand Prix.
As a result, Alonso finished third in the Drivers’ Championship while Stroll dropped to eighth, 66 points behind his team-mate.
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Currently, Aston Martin is second in the Drivers’ Championship; however, the general expectation is that Mercedes and Ferrari will eventually overtake the Silverstone-based team, should Alonso continue to fight them alone.
Despite Stroll’s struggles, Alonso actually defended the Canadian ahead of this weekend’s Spanish GP, with the 41-year-old admitting he hadn’t ‘lost the rhythm’.
“He was very unlucky in the last two events,” Alonso said, as reported by PlanetF1.com.
“If we go back to Bahrain, driving with one hand [after breaking his wrist in a pre-season cycling crash] he is very fast. Then Jeddah had exhaust problems as they edged past Ferrari in P5.
“Then in Miami we risked too much in Q1 and that put the race in jeopardy. And in Monaco the wreckage of Lando’s McLaren completely disappeared over the weekend.
“Obviously it makes headlines, it’s very easy to complicate it.
“I think if you look at the whole weekend even in Monaco in FP3, he’s less than a tenth off the fastest. He provided the right commentary, information and strategies on everything.
“So I really hope he gets some luck because I don’t think he lost the rhythm. It was just an opportunistic moment that wasn’t on his side.”
Despite Alonso defending his teammate, Stroll clearly lacked pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as he finished Free Practice 2 in 18th position.
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Alonso, meanwhile, finished the opening day in second place, just under two tenths behind Max Verstappen.
Somewhat to Stroll’s embarrassment, a graphic was shown during FP2 highlighting which Aston Martin driver was dominant at each corner.
Graphs showed Stroll was slower than Alonso in every turn, adding to the Canadian’s woes.
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