Stroll handed grid drop for Leclerc collision at F1 Monaco GP

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll has been given a one-place grid drop at Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix after colliding with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in Friday's opening practice session.

Leclerc ran into the back of Stroll at the hairpin nine minutes in, after the Canadian slowly crossed towards the racing line while Leclerc was approaching on a hot lap.

It gave the Monegasque no chance to slow down in time to avoid a collision and via team radio, Stroll said he hadn't heard his race engineer's message about Leclerc approaching.

As the session was red-flagged, Leclerc headed in for a new front wing, while Aston Martin announced Stroll's session was over due to rear suspension damage and a gearbox change. 

Afterwards, Stroll and Leclerc were summoned to the FIA's race stewards to explain the incident, which the stewards felt was entirely on Stroll.

An FIA statement read: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 18 (Stroll), the driver of Car 16 (Leclerc), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 18 cut across the path of Car 16 at Turn 6 causing Car 16 to collide into Car 18.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

"Car 16 suffered damage as a result. The driver of Car 18 stated that although the team warned him of the arrival of Car 16, he did not hear the radio message and that led to the incident.

“We considered that Car 18 was wholly to blame for the collision. Car 16 was not in a position to avoid the collision that took place. In the circumstances, we imposed a 1 grid position penalty for the Race and 1 penalty point."

Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell laid the blame on the team, while revealing the damage the incident had done to Stroll's car.

“Our radio call wasn’t clear enough is the bottom line, so we need to learn from that," he said.

"Rear wishbone broken damage to the floor and so the best option is to change the gearbox, because we set up two gearboxes yesterday ready for that sort of scenario. And the downside is that Lance doesn’t get FP1 back. So it’s those laps that he’s missed.”

The penalty point takes Stroll to a total of three over the past 12-month period, with 12 points leading to a race ban.

After the red flag, Leclerc returned to the track to lead the session with a 1m11.964s around the halfway mark. That was a time that held until the end as Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris filled the top three.