Lance Stroll makes surprising claim about “Aston Martin championship” battle at F1 Japanese GP

Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso resorted to battling it out in the “Aston Martin championship” at Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Aston Martin finished a race for the first time this season in Japan as Alonso took the chequered flag a lap down in 18th, while team-mate Stroll was forced to retire late on lap 30 to a suspected water leak.

Prior to Stroll’s race-ending issue, he and Alonso had been fighting at the very back of the pack.

It has been a torrid start to the season for Aston Martin and Honda, and Stroll couldn’t resist making light of the dire situation after Sunday’s race at Suzuka.

“I was enjoying the race, it’s a great track to drive, so I was enjoying the laps around this special track and enjoying the little Aston Martin battle with Fernando in last and second to last,” Stroll said in response to a question from Crash.net.

“I passed him and then we were in our little Aston Martin-Honda championship just battling there for 30 laps or something, which was fun.”

On the duel, two-time world champion Alonso said: “We talked before the race that maybe our race will be a little bit more lonely and if both cars run together that was maybe some good information as well, in terms of energy and different maps on the engine, so there was some fun there.

“Unfortunately he had to retire the car and we missed the second part of the fun.”

Despite Stroll’s retirement, Alonso was keen to take the positives from Aston Martin’s milestone at Honda’s home race.

“We have many boxes to tick and this was one of them, finishing a race distance. We didn’t manage in Australia, China or the first test, so it’s the very first time and hopefully the team has enough data to understand a little more the car and get in a better place for the next one,” the Spaniard said.

“We got to Australia 100% sure that we could not finish the race. The following week in China, 95% convinced we could not finish the race and now in race three, we finish.

“It's not the pace that we want, but there is some progress and some work in the team to keep improving. So, yeah, hopefully the first step for everyone to motivate both factories to keep improving.”

The Aston Martin is still beset with vibration issues but Alonso described the problem as “manageable”, enabling him to at least finish the race.

“I know they are working really hard,” he continued. “Since Australia, we are constantly talking and I know this was a special race for Honda here and we wanted to deliver the best. The best, unfortunately, was only finishing the race.

“But I think it's something already to show that we are committed to help them and to be close to them. It's tough for everybody, but we are one team and we will get better together.”