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MUST-SEE: Brave slick gamble goes wrong for Stroll as he hits the wall in Sprint Shootout at Spa
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Lance Stroll rolled the dice in the Belgian Sprint Shootout with a move to slick tyres on the rapidly drying track. But the bold call failed to pay out, after the Canadian clattered into the wall and out of the running at Spa-Francorchamps.
Stroll had made it through to the second segment of Saturday's Sprint Shootout, which had been delayed by 35 minutes due to rain. But with just 10 minutes of running in SQ2, Aston Martin made the brave move to put Stroll on medium slick tyres, as the rest of the field opted for intermediates.
READ MORE: Verstappen claims pole in wet/dry Spa Sprint Shootout by 0.011s from Piastri
But opening up his first flying lap in SQ2, Stroll only made it as far as Turn 9 before a snap of oversteer sent him pinging into the wall, ripping the right-front off the AMR23, with Stroll emerging from the shunt unharmed.
“We tried putting the slick tyres on but it was still too early,” said Stroll after making it back to the paddock on a motorbike. “It was really wet and unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“We just decided to go for it. It’s always tricky in these conditions and it was a bit early… It’s always hard to judge and anticipate exactly when the track’s going to dry, so it was one of those.”
Watch the dramatic moment in the video above, with Stroll now set to start the Sprint from P14 on the grid.
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