Lance Stroll’s test debut for Williams in Barcelona ended after only 12 laps when accident damage forced the team to call it a day.
The Canadian has thus lost one of his four planned days of winter testing with the new car, although the team has the option of giving him some of the time allocated to Felipe Massa.
Stroll suffered front wing damage when he spun into a gravel trap. The team did not have the parts to allow him to run again, but replacements will be on hand for tomorrow.
“It is still early days and I have only done a handful of laps,” said Stroll. “I am just getting to grips with the FW40, and there is still a lot of time ahead of us. It was good to finally get behind the wheel to just get a feel for it.
“Like I said, it is still early days, so I need to do a lot more running before I know exactly where I am and where the car is at. I will have a much better picture once we have more laps under our belts, but it was good to break the ice and I am looking forward to some more running.”
“Lance was on lap six of his second run when he had a spin,” said Rob Smedley. “The grip was particularly low, and so he spun and went through the gravel backwards. Even though the accident was entirely innocuous we’ve unfortunately had quite a bit of accident damage, which we’re now in the process of repairing.
“We’re having to send some composite parts back to the factory, which will be back with us at some point tomorrow. We’re doing the utmost we can now to get back out on track at the earliest opportunity tomorrow. We will be able to recover the program in the coming days."
