Lance Stroll might be thanking his lucky stars after the United States Grand Prix, as the Canadian almost caused an almost identical crash to the one Mark Webber experienced at the 2010 European Grand Prix.
The Aston Martin driver up until Lap 22 was having by far his best weekend of the season, after being competitive throughout practice and especially in qualifying.
Due to grid penalties for Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez, Stroll actually started the race from fifth and was up to third by the time he exited the first corner.
An opening corner collision between polesitter Carlos Sainz and George Russell elevated the Canadian to third, where he looked incredibly comfortable.
READ: Toto Wolff jokes about Christian Horner’s ‘bullying’ claim amid cheating fiasco
He was eventually overtaken by Pérez, Leclerc and Russell; however, looked comfortable in sixth ahead of his retiring team-mate.
Stroll’s race did then take a turn for the worse, though, as a slow pit-stop dropped the 23-year-old well into the midfield and out of the points places.
He recovered some of the places he lost during the race’s first Safety Car, which was released due to Valtteri Bottas spinning into the gravel at Turn 19.
Lap 22 is where the Canadian’s race spun out of control, quite literally.
On the first lap of a return to green flag racing, Stroll was defending from 2023 team-mate Fernando Alonso down the main straight, before making an idiotic move.
Alonso was right in the slipstream of Stroll’s AMR22 and moved to the inside of the Canadian to carry the speed difference; however, Stroll turned left at the exact same time, resulting in a huge accident.
The Spaniard went up the back of Stroll’s Aston Martin which deflated his rear-left and saw his rear-wing collapse, as the Alpine driver almost flipped completely over.
It was a near-mirror image of Webber’s crash with Heikki Kovalainen at Valencia in 2010, where the Aussie flipped horrendously into the air after hitting the back of the Lotus.
Thankfully, Alonso’s car didn’t flip over and instead performed what was possibly the fastest wheelie ever seen, before unbelievably regaining control of his car.
Stroll, on the other hand, spun several times on the racing line before his car peeled to the side of the circuit, with the drivers behind all somehow avoiding hitting either Stroll or Alonso.
An immense clean-up job then had to take place under yet another Safety Car, with carbon fibre having been littered across the circuit.
Stroll instantly retired from the race, whilst Alonso incredibly continued and finished seventh somehow.
READ: Red Bull hit out at Lewis Hamilton’s move against Max Verstappen
The blame was instantly put onto the Aston Martin driver, who Formula 1 presenter Will Buxton labelled “utterly stupid” on Twitter.
“Idiotic from Stroll. Utterly stupid,” Buxton wrote.
The FIA announced during the race that the incident would be investigated after the race, with the stewards’ wanting to hear from both drivers first.