Aston Martin’s final preseason outing in Bahrain was repeatedly hamstrung by reliability problems that prompted on-track stoppages and cost the team valuable running. The week’s disruptions included Lance Stroll’s spin into the Turn 11 gravel — blamed on a loss of drive while downshifting — which brought the session’s first red flag and required a crane recovery that stopped running for about seven minutes.

Later in the test Fernando Alonso’s car suffered a power-unit/engine issue and stopped on track, reported at the exit of Turn 4 during a race simulation, forcing another red-flag interruption and leaving Alonso unable to rejoin that stint.

Those problems left Aston Martin with markedly reduced mileage and patchy programs. Alonso was limited to the stint that ended in the stoppage (most sources recording about 28 laps; one put his total at 34) and was down the order — recorded as 12th and roughly four seconds off the fastest test benchmark — while the team had already logged the fewest laps in the previous week’s Bahrain running. Team engineers attempted to recover running after the failures, but the interruptions, plus an earlier Stroll incident, underlined recurring pace shortfalls and reliability concerns for Aston Martin as teams wrapped up final preseason preparations.

Sources

Crash.net – F1F1 TechnicalPlanetF1 – Formula 1The Race – F1AutosportF1 Oversteer