A Saturday to forget
The return to the track with GT cars could not have gone worse for Lance Stroll, who on Saturday took part in the 6 Hours of Paul Ricard, the first round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe calendar. The Canadian raced at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO of the Comtoyou Racing team together with Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya; however, the trio finished the race in a disastrous 48th position, 13 laps behind the race winners, who were none other than their teammates Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen, and Nicki Thiim in the second Comtoyou team car.
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In qualifying, the trio ‘captained’ by Stroll had achieved a far from exciting 15th fastest time, while in the race the situation plummeted following an infinite sequence of penalties incurred by the #18 car. Overall, the penalties reached a total of eight minutes and 25 seconds; Stroll specifically was directly responsible for a one-minute penalty for failing to respect blue flags and a further one-minute and 55-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
The only consolation for Stroll was the times shown in some laps of his stints, which were among the fastest of the race. Decidedly too little, however, to consider this return to GT racing satisfactory, having not seen him as a protagonist since 2018.
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The results of the other ‘big’ names
Things went better for Max Verstappen’s team which, even without the Dutchman at the wheel – the four-time F1 world champion was nonetheless present in the pits to observe his teammates – finished the race in ninth place. Finally, 12th place for Valentino Rossi’s crew, who shared the cockpit with Daniel Harper and Max Hesse.
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