Lance Stroll’s heroic return to action almost ended in embarrassing fashion at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, after the Canadian clipped new team-mate Fernando Alonso at Turn Four on the opening lap.
Given his condition, Stroll had been performing incredibly at the Bahrain International Circuit, given that he had surgery to fix his broken wrist.
Colliding with Alonso on the opening lap, though, almost brought a painful end to both of their races, with Stroll having revealed that he was “shedding a few tears” after hitting the Spaniard.
Stroll was crying due to his wrists having been “on fire”, not because of the collision.
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The Aston Martin driver ended up claiming a sensational sixth place finish, which seemed like an impossible outcome ahead of the weekend due to his wrists.
Stroll reflected on the collision and how it occurred, with him having admitted that the duo “dodged a bullet” by receiving no damage from the clash.
“It was really terrible timing,” Stroll said about the incident with Alonso.
“I was going on the inside of George Russell, trying to stay in front of him. I braked late, Fernando went for the cutback on Lewis Hamilton. He really stopped the car in the middle of Turn 4 and we just came together.
“Really horrible timing for all those things to happen with the great car we had today.
“Very fortunately we both saved it and went onto have a good race.
“My wrists were on fire after that, I was shedding a few tears after that one.
“Most importantly we both stayed on track and went onto have a good race – dodged a bullet, for sure.”
Stroll really was a huge doubt ahead of the weekend, given that he missed pre-season testing.
He could be seen during Free Practice on Friday struggling to turn at the opening corner, with many having pondered if he’d hand the car over to reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.
The Canadian persevered, though, and managed to beat the Mercedes of George Russell.
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Following the race, he revealed that he’d been told that a return to action wasn’t looking likely until the third or fourth round of the season, highlighting just how much damage he did to his wrists and his broken toe.
Stroll added: “It was a terrible time to crash on a bicycle and doctors were telling me, ‘Maybe Australia, maybe Baku…’
“The light at the end of the tunnel was very hard to see but I had an incredible medical team that helped me along the way.”