Lance Stroll has been given a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix after being found responsible for a collision with Esteban Ocon during Saturday’s sprint race.
The incident occurred at Turn 1 in the closing laps when Stroll made contact with Ocon’s Haas, triggering a chain of events that caused the race — ultimately won by Max Verstappen — to finish under a safety car.
Race stewards ruled Stroll at fault and issued a five-place grid drop based on his qualifying position for Sunday’s main event, along with two penalty points on his super license, bringing his 12-month total to seven.
Drivers face a one-race suspension if they accumulate 12 penalty points on their super license within a 12-month span.
In their report, stewards stated: “Car 18 attempted an inside pass on Car 31 at Turn 1 but misjudged the braking point and made contact with Car 31. The stewards find the driver of Car 18 fully responsible and have applied the appropriate penalty.”
Because Stroll did not finish the race, stewards converted the standard 10-second time penalty into a five-place grid drop for Sunday’s main event.
The crash triggered the second safety car of the 100km sprint, following an earlier Turn 1 collision between McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The incidents helped Max Verstappen extend his lead in the drivers’ championship by eight points ahead of Sunday’s qualifying session, which begins at 4 p.m. local time (10 p.m. BST).
