Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Richard Bradley has warned Lance Stroll that one of the Aston Martin star’s Formula 1 rivals is now making the Canadian ‘look terrible’.
The 25-year-old faced another frustrating race to start his 2024 season at the Chinese GP on Sunday. Stroll had to settle for 15th place at the chequered flag after serving a 10-second penalty for causing a collision that ended the race of Visa Cash App RB ace Daniel Ricciardo.
Stroll ploughed into the rear of Ricciardo’s RB as the field prepared for the first of two safety car restarts. He even lifted the rear of the Australian’s car and caused enough damage to his diffuser to see Ricciardo have to retire. Stroll also immediately hit the pits to get a new nose.
Fernando Alonso is making Lance Stroll ‘look terrible’ at Aston Martin
Ricciardo and Stroll were set to fight over P9 at the restart before the contact ruined both of their races. It all came after Fernando Alonso in the other Aston Martin locked up before the T14 hairpin to trigger a chain reaction of George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Ricciardo braking.
Stroll was too slow to react to the events unfolding right in front of the 25-year-old. It led to his worst finish of the year so far after sealing P10 in the Bahrain GP, P6 in the Australian GP and P12 in the Japanese GP. Stroll crashed out of the Saudi Arabian GP on only Lap 7 of 50.
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It was even a cheap mistake which saw Stroll crash in Jeddah after clipping the inside wall at Turn 22. Alonso, meanwhile, secured P5 in the Saudi Arabian GP for his best result so far this season. The 42-year-old also got P9 in Bahrain, P8 in Australia, P6 in Japan and P7 in China.
Richard Bradley likens Fernando Alonso to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo
Seeing Alonso continue to thrive at 42 while Stroll struggles also convinces Bradley that the Spaniard is making his Aston Martin teammate look ‘terrible’. The European Le Mans LMP2 driver also likens Alonso’s longevity to footballers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It’s like Ibrahimovic,” the LMP2 class winner at the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours told DR Sports. “When you see Ibrahimovic doing what he did at that age – and even Ronaldo now, to a certain extent. But he’s just making Stroll look terrible, there’s no other way to describe it.”
The Chinese GP weekend further hammered home the disparity between Aston Martin duo Alonso and Stroll. While the former took P3 in the Sprint Qualifying session, the latter could only manage P15. Alonso also qualified in P3 for the Grand Prix as Stroll only managed P11.
Alonso finishing the Chinese GP in P7 and setting the fastest lap of the race even moved him on to 31 points for the season so far. Stroll has only scored nine points over the opening five rounds. So, British racer Bradley has evidence to claim Alonso is destroying Stroll this year.
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