Monaco Grand Prix winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli made clear he was unhappy with Lance Stroll’s behaviour on track during the race, and he was not the only driver to be frustrated.
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Antonelli said Stroll cost him time when he was lapping the Aston Martin driver for the second time. He caught Stroll at the Fairmont Hotel hairpin, then followed him through several corners until Stroll finally let him through at the Nouvelle Chicane.
“Stroll is the usual idiot, honestly,” Antonelli remarked to his race engineer Peter Bonnington over the radio.
At the time Antonelli had built a gap of around 20 seconds to the Ferraris. When they reached Stroll’s position to lap him, Charles Leclerc was also irritated by Stroll’s response to blue flags.
Stroll’s race engineer told him he had blue flags for Leclerc as he negotiated the Fairmont Hotel hairpin, but again Stroll waited until the Nouvelle Chicane before moving aside.
“Give him a penalty,” Leclerc told his race engineer Bryan Bozzi. Bozzi acknowledged the message.
Race control did not open an investigation into Stroll or other drivers for failing to respond to blue flags. The official Competition Notes for the event require lapped drivers to “allow the following driver to overtake at the first available opportunity” once the separation is no more than 1.2 seconds.
Stroll encountered another challenging afternoon in the AMR26, which showed handling issues throughout the weekend. On the second lap he experienced a significant snap of oversteer while negotiating the high-speed right-hander through the tunnel.
“That was interesting in the tunnel, did you see that?” he asked his race engineer, adding with a laugh: “See you later.”
His race ended before long after Leclerc’s complaint; on lap 57 he made contact with the barrier at Anthony Noghes. After the incident he climbed out reporting: “It was like the throttle was just stuck wide open.”
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