Brake disc failure ended Stroll's F1 debut
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Lance Stroll's first race in Formula 1 was brought to a premature end on Sunday when a brake issue forced him to retire from the Australian Grand Prix.
Stroll, 18, made his first official F1 weekend appearance for Williams on Friday at Albert Park, but suffered a setback in FP3 when he crashed at Turn 10.
While the team was able to fix Stroll's car in time for qualifying, the Canadian could only finish 19th in Q1, and dropped to last place on the grid following a gearbox penalty.
Stroll made up six places on the opening lap after braking late at Turn 1, and rose up to 13th following the pit stop cycle.
The Williams driver then continued to rack up the laps running in P13, going some way to make up for his difficulties in pre-season, only to head into the run-off area with a brake issue that forced him to retire with 17 laps to go.
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"Today we were running a decent race and the pace was pretty good," Stroll said. "I had a good start, which was risky although I didn't plan on it being quite so risky! Some guys braked quite early in front of me and I managed to gain some places, but then I had a flat spot so had to stop early and, strategy-wise, we changed to a two-stop.
"Then we managed to have a surprisingly good race. It was my first race, and first weekend, so there are a few positives to take out of it. We had what I believe was a brake disc failure. I just hit the pedal, it went long and I was lucky it was in a place where there was a lot of run-off.
"Unfortunately, that incident yesterday cost us a lot of positions in qualifying, but today I enjoyed myself and so a big thank you to the team."
Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe added: "It is a shame for Lance, who put in a good first drive with some overtakes in his first race in Formula One, so it is a shame that he then had to retire with a brake failure.
"Clearly that's an issue we need to get on top for the races to come and make sure we don't have a repeat."
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