Stroll set for grid penalty at Spanish Grand Prix

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

A Technical Delegate’s Report released on Saturday confirmed that Stroll’s AMR26 is now running its fifth internal combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-K, sixth energy store unit and seventh PU-ANC.

With these elements all exceeding the number allocated to each driver, the Canadian will receive a grid drop; the first time the allocation of any one of the components 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.

As such, Stroll is likely to be handed a significant penalty for the first-ever F1 race in Madrid.

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.