Stroll clipped the kerbs through the final corner at Marina Bay to unsettle the rear of his AMR23. He then fired into the outside wall before spinning back across the circuit.
This shunt, which ripped the tethered front-left wheel off, in the dying moments of Q1 led to a lengthy red flag stoppage while the barriers were repaired and fluid cleaned.
No injuries were detected during a precautionary assessment in the medical centre, following which Stroll explained that a hectic Q1 had laid the groundwork for his crash.
He reckoned that a combination of losing time to the FIA weighing his car, traffic, dirty air and poor tyre preparation prompted him to ‘send it’ in a bid to scrape into Q2.
The Canadian said: “We just weren’t really improving on that last lap with the out-lap being really bad. I had a lot of traffic, guys trying to make the line at the end.
“We got stopped at the weighbridge so that put us at the back of the queue and then I had to try and pass a bunch of cars to get my lap in before the end of the session.”
Stroll reckoned the wake left by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly ahead was exaggerated by the nature of Singapore, given the proximity of the street track walls, to unsettle the car.
He continued: “I started my lap two seconds behind one of the Alpines, which is really not ideal for aero performance.
“I was just not really improving my lap time much to get through to Q2 so I sent it into the last corner, tried to make up some time. It was not really doable.
“It happens quickly but I know why I crashed. It was just because I wasn’t going fast enough to get through.
“Having the car two seconds in front is really bad for aero. You lose tonnes of downforce around here with the funnelling of the walls especially.”
Stroll, who missed pre-season testing due to breaking his wrists in a cycling crash, explained that he had taken both hands off the wheel for the impact.
He also “assumed the red flag would be out” so was not worried about being collected by another car, despite McLaren’s Lando Norris having a near miss.
Stroll, whose car will require a new chassis, continued: “I was just checking if everything felt OK on my body. That was the main thing.
“Once I realised everything was OK, it was just shitty because we had a rough session and it’s been rough lately for a while now.
“Quali just didn’t go our way at all with bad out-laps, traffic, poor tyre preparation. Around here, when those things pile up, it’s such a negative spiral. The result of that was having the crash.”
