Liam Lawson admits Aston Martin dominated Racing Bulls in Austin. Liam Lawson finishes 11th at the United States Grand Prix.

Racing Bulls’ New Zealand driver Liam Lawson missed the points once again at the United States Grand Prix, finishing 11th behind Fernando Alonso but ahead of Lance Stroll. The team’s goal after failing to score in Singapore was to return at least one car to the top 10 in Austin, in order to defend sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship and extend the gap over Aston Martin. However, the setback in Marina Bay repeated itself in Texas, giving a slight advantage to the Silverstone-based rivals.

No answer to Alonso

Aston Martin, thanks to Fernando Alonso’s 10th place finish, slightly closed the gap on Racing Bulls, although the Faenza team maintained sixth in the Constructors’ standings. Lawson, who battled Alonso until the final stages, ultimately crossed the line in 11th, ahead of Lance Stroll. Lawson said, “I gave everything I could, but my start wasn’t great because I got stuck at Turn 1. That position probably cost us a point, and overall our pace just wasn’t strong enough. Overtaking is very difficult here, and Aston Martin controlled the race from front to back. It’s frustrating because we lost points over the weekend, but we will apply what we learned in Mexico next weekend.”

Isack Hadjar’s disastrous qualifying

It was an even more challenging weekend for Isack Hadjar, who suffered a crash in qualifying that forced him to start from 20th on the grid, eventually finishing 16th. “This was the race I expected starting from the back,” Isack Hadjar admitted. “So far, I haven’t shown real pace this weekend, and our strategy was to do a long first stint and hope for a safety car. There are some things we need to understand with the car — we’ve been strong almost every weekend this year, but we had a driving problem that we need to fix and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I still had some good battles on track and learned a lot, so there’s plenty of momentum to take into Mexico.”

Racing Bulls will now focus on translating lessons from Austin into improved performance at the Mexican Grand Prix, hoping to finally secure points for both drivers and close the gap to Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship.