Fernando Alonso‘s Bahrain Grand Prix podium may have been big for Aston Martin, but they celebrated team mate Lance Stroll’s sixth place just as much due to the brilliant comeback story behind it.
Two weeks before the season-opener, Stroll was injured in a cycling accident, the details of which weren’t initially shared in full by the team. Stroll was forced to miss the only pre-season test session, where Felipe Drugovich took his place in the Aston Martin AMR23.
The Mercedes-powered car looked impressive in the Bahrain test, and Drugovich told he would make his Formula 1 race debut at the same track if Stroll had not recovered in time. However, despite sustaining two broken wrists and a broken toe, Stroll was indeed able to return.
“My medical team has been incredible,” said Stroll after finishing sixth in the Bahrain Grand Prix. “I have to say a huge thank you to everyone that has helped me over the last two weeks.
“The surgeon in Spain, Doctor Amir, without him, it wouldn’t be possible to be here right now. He’s been unbelievable. And my osteopath, Henry, who’s been with me 10 hours a day rehab-ing my wrists, fixing my toe – as much as you can do with toes. There’s a list of people that helped me over the last two weeks.”
Stroll revealed that following his crash doctors initially told him the earliest he might return was the third sound of the season, the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of next month. He drove with only one hand on the steering wheel at times during practice last weekend, but was able to use both wrists throughout the race.
“I’m feeling a little bit better. The team improved the assist level on the wheel a little bit for me. So it was making it a bit easier,” said Stroll. “Aside from the pain, it was fun,” he said thought, “the last 20 laps, I was grinding it out to the end.”
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Aston Martin’s team principal Mike Krack was particularly impressed by Stroll’s comeback given his limited running was exacerbated by a technical problem with his car during practice.
“We must not forget he had no testing, he had a problem on Friday. Then he had huge stress in qualifying” said Krack. “He did not drive the hard tyres at all because we saved both. He had just no reference about managing.
“So I think we knew in all the hype that we had obviously around…
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