Lance Stroll hit with second grid drop at painful Monaco GP weekend

Lance Stroll has been issued a second grid penalty at the Monaco Grand Prix after being deemed guilty of impeding Pierre Gasly during qualifying.

The Aston Martin driver was handed a one-place grid drop on Friday after making contact with Charles Leclerc during practice.

Stroll gained the attention of the stewards once again after qualifying when he got in the way of Gasly, who was on a hot lap during Q1.

The Canadian has been issued another grid demotion - this time three places - for ruining Gasly's lap.

“Car 18 was informed that Car 10 was arriving on a fast lap at Turn 10,” read a statement from the stewards. 

“From the radio communications it appears that Car 18 was not informed/reminded that Car 44 (whom Car 18 had overtaken earlier in that lap) was also coming and that Car 44 was going to overtake Car 18. 

“The driver of Car 18 assumed wrongly that there was only one car to be let by and when Car 44 (which was not on a fast lap) went by him, he moved back to the racing line thereby impeding Car 10 which was on a fast lap. 

“During the hearing, the driver of Car 18 stated that he could not tell the colour of the car that had overtaken him because of the position of the sun, which we accepted. He therefore wrongly assumed that there was no other car to be let by. In the circumstances, we imposed the usual penalty of a drop of 3 grid positions.”

Stroll ended the qualifying session in 19th place but is set to remain there as Oliver Bearman will serve a 10-place grid for a red flag infringement during practice.