Stroll handed pitlane start in Mexico after parc fermé changes

Lance Stroll will launch his Mexican Grand Prix from the pitlane following changes made to the Canadian’s Aston Martin by his team.

Stroll qualified P17 on Saturday, four spots behind his teammate Fernando Alonso, after another weekend of struggles for Team Silverstone.

In a bid to improve the performance of Stroll’s AMR23, Aston Martin opted to take the latter out of parc fermé and implement several specification changes while also modifying the car’s suspension settings.

In the FIA's official document filed by technical delegate Jo Bauer, Aston has its car’s floor assembly, sidepod bodywork panels, rear beam wing, rear anti-roll bar and front brake friction material as well as suspension set-up tweaks.

• Read also: Alonso struggling with ‘gradually slow’ Aston Martin

"All the above listed parts have been replaced with the approval of the FIA technical delegate following a written request from the team concerned, this being in accordance with Article 40.3 of the 2023 Formula One Sporting Regulations," the document stated.

"But as the above parts are different from the ones originally used and also changes have been made to the set-up of the suspension (with the approval of the FIA technical delegate following a written request), car number 18 should now be required to start from the pit lane according to Article 40.9 of the 2023 Formula One Sporting Regulations."

In addition to Stroll starting his race from the pitlane at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant were both hit with grid penalties by the Mexican Grand Prix stewards.

Tsunoda is set to start his race on the last row of the grid from P17 as the AlphTauri driver takes on a fifth gearbox and complete power unit, while Sargeant was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking Tsunoda under a yellow flag regie in Saturday’s qualifying session.

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