Stroll set for grid penalty at Spanish Grand Prix

Lance Stroll will take a grid penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix after Aston Martin opted to fit a range of new power unit components.

Stroll’s AMR26 is now running its fifth internal combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-K, sixth energy store unit and seventh PU-ANC.

As per the regulations, the first time the allocation of any power unit element is exceeded, a 10-place grid penalty will be applied, with the second time this occurs (and so on) resulting in a five-place grid drop – all penalties at the same event applying in a cumulative manner.

In this case, the use of a sixth energy store and a fifth MGU-K each carries a five-place grid penalty, and the use of a fifth internal combustion engine, fifth turbocharger and seventh PU-ANC each carries a 10-place grid penalty. Therefore Stroll has been hit with a 40 place grid drop.

If a driver incurs a penalty exceeding 15 grid places, they will be required to start the race at the back of the field regardless.

There were reliability concerns for Aston Martin on track at the Madring during Friday, with Stroll experiencing a suspected battery issue towards the end of Free Practice 2.

Team mate Fernando Alonso also suffered a clutch problem in the day’s first practice hour, before resuming his programme in the second session.