Stroll and Latifi collided late in Q1 at the Albert Park circuit in the area between Turns 5 and 6, causing a red flag to stop the session.
Both drivers were on warm-up laps before their final attempts and after Stroll came out of the pits and was passed by Latifi, the Williams driver gave way to the Aston Martin driver. However, Latifi then overtook his rival again at Turn 6, and Stroll moved to the right, causing an absurd accident.
Both drivers were quick to blame each other over the team radio, with the stewards instantly confirming that there would be an investigation after the session.
After the meeting, the stewards confirmed that Lance Stroll was considered to be the main culprit in the crash and that he would receive a three grid position penalty for Sunday’s race.
That won’t really change anything though, because he had already qualified last in Q1 and was therefore already 20th.
The Canadian has also received two penalty points on his FIA superlicense, taking him to seven in the last 12 months.
The stewards wrote in the statement that Stroll had had a “lack of situational awareness of Latifi’s overtaking manoeuvre” on the inside towards Turn 6, making him the primary culprit in the collision.
“He was trying to suddenly pass me in a very awkward part of the circuit,” Stroll said after the accident.
“The circuit falls to the right and then to the left, and I think what happened was very awkward.
“All of a sudden he was trying to pass me and that spot gets narrower as the circuit drops off to the right, and we touched. So yeah, quite a ridiculous incident.”
Nicholas Latifi said it was “pretty clear” from watching the video who was at fault. “I let him pass because he was pushing to open a lap, or so they told me,” he said.
“And then I saw that he aborted the lap, so I wanted to continue with my preparation lap. And I overtook him again. There was a big gap, and once I passed him, for some reason he decided to turn. Watching the video, for me it’s Sure”.
