F1 fans have surprising reaction to Lance Stroll receiving 175 seconds of penalties in GT3 debut

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Lance Stroll’s GT3 debut was marred by a ridiculous amount of penalties, but fans were left surprisingly impressed by the Canadian’s pace in the race.

The one-month break in the Formula 1 season has prompted drivers to participate in other categories. Max Verstappen recently competed in another GT3 race at the Nurburgring and is set to take part in the 24-Hour race later this year.

Kimi Antonelli also wants to race in GT3 in the future. Another driver who has delved into sports car racing over the break is Stroll, who made his debut at the Circuit Paul Ricard over the weekend, and it did not go entirely to plan.

What do you expect from Lance Stroll in the 2026 F1 season?

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Racing an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO in the pro class of the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe, Stroll drove alongside Aston Martin junior driver Mari Boya and former F1 driver Roberto Merhi, and the trio placed 48th.

Penalties ravaged their efforts, as Boya was hit with a stop-and-go penalty for a collision with Sean Gelael. Merhi and Stroll both received punishments for ignoring blue flags and track limit violations, with the latter receiving 175 seconds of penalties.

F1 fans were impressed by Lance Stroll’s pace in GT3 debut

In total, the No.7 Aston Martin racked up 465 seconds as they finished second-to-last at Paul Ricard. However, that did not tell the full story, as Stroll had been displaying a pace equal to the top 10 during the race.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), F1 fans surprisingly came to Stroll’s defence, saying that his speed was actually impressive despite the poor result on the timesheet.

“As seen in comments on YouTube, his lap times were as good as the top 15 and even had a purple sector but the hate is easy for all of you who haven’t watched the race,” said one fan. Another wrote: “He wasn’t bad actually. But his teammates racked up so many penalties. Stroll did get 1 but because his engineer didn’t warn about the blue flags.”

Lance Stroll believes a win is possible during his GT3 debut 👀

But where do you think the Canadian's team will finish?

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“He was as fast as the winning car btw.” pointed out one user. Another said: “So easy to tell who actually paid attention to the race and who didn’t. Stroll’s pace was actually solid, I hope he keeps doing GT racing because he’s not as bad as people make him out to be.”

“I mean his pace was good and he did some good lap times its his first time on this track and racing a GT3 car so I thinks its a decent debut and he will eventually adapt and we will see him around more, I guess,” said another fan.

Finally, one wrote: “The pace of Lance Stroll is impressive, considering this is his debut in GT3. He just set a 1:55.796, which is faster than anybody else in the top ten.”

READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Lance Stroll hopes to do more GT3 racing in the future

Like Verstappen and perhaps more F1 drivers in the future, Stroll would like to delve into GT racing further and potentially compete in more events in 2026.

He said via Crash: “It’s different – less downforce, less power – but it moves more,” he added. “You can attack kerbs more, which is different. And in traffic, you can follow cars much more closely than in Formula 1.

“If I feel good physically and mentally, I’d like to do more races during the year.

“For me, whenever I’m in the car with my helmet on, whether it’s here, Formula 1, or even karting, it’s always the same mindset. But here, it’s nice: fewer media duties, more time in the garage working with the team and just driving and enjoying it.”