{"id":580435,"date":"2026-04-02T09:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580435\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:21:21","slug":"lance-stroll-to-make-surprise-gt-appearance-during-april-f1-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/580435\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Stroll to make surprise GT appearance during April F1 break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Formula 1 driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lance-stroll\/20950\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lance Stroll<\/a> will take advantage of an unexpected break in the Formula 1 calendar to contest his maiden GT race.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian is named on the entry list for the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe at Paul Ricard on 11-12 April.<\/p>\n<p>Stroll will drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entered by\u00a0Comtoyou Racing, sharing the driving duties with former Manor grand prix driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/roberto-merhi\/12946\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Roberto Merhi<\/a> and Formula 3 race winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/mari-boya\/957751\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mari Boya<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old has prior experience in\u00a0sportscar racing, having taken part in two editions of the Daytona 24 Hours in the mid-2010s before prioritising his commitments with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/williams\/13\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Williams<\/a> and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/aston-martin\/49095\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aston Martin<\/a> in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>However, both those\u00a0Daytona outings came in prototype machinery rather than a production-based GT racer. Stroll made his debut at the IMSA SportsCar Championship classic in a Ford-powered Riley DP in 2016, before switching to Jackie Chan RC Racing\u2019s Oreca 07.<\/p>\n<p>More to follow<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nicolas-baert-comtoyou-racing-.jpg\" alt=\"Nicolas Baert, Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Nicolas Baert, Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Markus Toppm\u00f6ller<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll will take advantage of an unexpected break in the Formula 1 calendar to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,277594,813,816,165556,107978,10310,284500,85],"class_list":["post-580435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-japanese-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gt-world-challenge-europe-endurance","tag-japanese-gp","tag-lance-stroll","tag-lance-stroll-to-make-surprise-gt-appearance-during-april-f1-break","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}