Lance Stroll revealed the circumstances and the full extent of the injuries he suffered in the cycling crash that nearly sidelined him from this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Stroll was declared fit to drive earlier this week, and all things considered the Canadian has acquitted himself well since the start of the race weekend at Sakhir, and especially in qualifying which he concluded ninth.
But two weeks ago, in the wake of his unfortunate stumble, while constrained to a hospital bed in Spain where he had been training, Stroll viewed his odds of joining the grid in Bahrain as quite low.
"It has been pretty insane," the Aston charger told Sky F1 on Saturday. "It’s exactly two weeks today since my crash, my bike crash. Twelve days since surgery, came out of the hospital a week ago.
"I couldn’t move my hands, I couldn’t walk, I broke my toe. Bahrain looked like it was very far away at the time and I didn’t think it was… the light at the end of the tunnel was very far at the time.
"Really just grateful to be here and back in the car, thanks to everyone, my physio, the doctor in Spain that did the procedure. Everyone just helped me massively to be here right now."
©AstonMartin
Although his right wrist required minor surgery to help his recovery, his injured toe almost produced a painful level of discomfort once he was up and running.
"Today is actually the first day I’m feeling that my toe is good enough to walk on it," he said. "It doesn’t hurt in the car, unless I hit a few bumps.
"I’m feeling better every day, just doing a lot of physio, ice on my wrists. Every day is that 10 per cent improvement kind of thing.
"Tomorrow should be good, we have a great car in the long runs so I’m looking forward to it."
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Stroll was half a second down on teammate Fernando Alonso in qualifying. But the Canadian's ninth fastest lap in Q3 was a spirited effort given the circumstances.
"I am really happy with today’s result, he said on Saturday. "It shows the progress we have made as a team over the winter and that our hard work is paying off.
"From eighth we can race well and hopefully bring home some points tomorrow.
"I have spent the practice sessions doing my best to learn about the car, get up to speed, and find a rhythm as we built up to qualifying.
"I am really pleased with the performance I put in today and feeling grateful to be here just two weeks after my accident. I cannot wait to go racing tomorrow."
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