Lance Stroll rocked by staggering penalties in miserable GTWC debut

The Canadian driver, much like Max Verstappen in recent weeks, opted to branch out into GT racing beyond Formula 1, making the most of the enforced break following the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix while awaiting clarity on whether they will be rescheduled later in the season.

Lawrence Stroll’s son took part in the opening round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season at Paul Ricard, a circuit that hosted Formula 1 until a few years ago and is now primarily used for testing duties. He shared the car with former Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya.

Stroll also delivered a solid showing in qualifying, placing the ComtoYou-run Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO 15th overall, before his race - along with that of his team-mates - quickly turned into a nightmare.

The remaining penalties were largely picked up by his team-mates. Merhi alone accumulated multiple sanctions, including five separate 30-second penalties for ignoring blue flags, a further 75-second penalty for track limits, and an additional pit stop penalty with 30 seconds added for another track limits infringement.

Boya, meanwhile, was handed a 35-second stop-and-go penalty for causing a collision, further adding to the team’s mounting tally.

All of this ultimately left Stroll and his team-mates down in 48th place, having been lapped a staggering 12 times by the sister car of Drudi, Sørensen and Thiim, who were running the same machinery under the same team banner.

As for the Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry of the four-time world champion, fielded by Daniel Juncadella, Chris Lulham and Jules Gounon, they brought the car home in ninth overall, finishing 35 seconds adrift of the race winner.