Liam Lawson attributed his struggles in the sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix to his inability to sufficiently cool the tires before his final push lap, which left him at the back of the grid.
The New Zealander was in 10th place after the first runs, having set a time of 1’32″729, but his second attempt was interrupted—and ultimately deleted—after running wide at Turn 9 and exceeding track limits.
Throughout the session, Liam Lawson visibly struggled to find grip and was unable to bring down the temperature of his medium tires during the cooldown laps before his final attempt.
This caused him to wrestle with the car in the opening corners, particularly using a lot of steering input to get the car to turn, before losing ground in the second sector.
“I went off track, so it’s obviously a shame,” admitted the Red Bull driver. “I think initially it wasn’t bad; the first lap was good, and we wanted to continue like that, but we stayed out to try and cool the tires on track.”
“To be honest, I really struggled to bring the temperatures down from the second lap onwards, so on the second attempt, I struggled. It’s frustrating.”
“It’s really a shame and very frustrating. Our pace should be much better than what we showed. Obviously, there’s the sprint race tomorrow to try and learn something, and then also qualifying. We want to do a better job.”
GPS data shows that in the opening laps of SQ1, Lawson was relatively on par with Max Verstappen until the final sector; the Dutchman’s better exit from Turn 12 helped him carry more speed along the 1.2 km back straight before braking earlier into Turn 14 to get a stronger exit through the final corners.
Lawson was much less confident, trailing his teammate by 0.4 seconds after the initial runs in the session. Then, he was unable to set a more representative time due to his off at Turn 9, while Verstappen gained another three-tenths. The improvements from other drivers subsequently caused the New Zealander to slide further down the order.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko did not want to criticize Lawson, stating that he needs more time to prove his worth, especially given his lack of experience on the two circuits featured in this part of the 2025 calendar.
“He started well in the first qualifying run, but unfortunately, he lost it and only managed one lap,” Helmut Marko told Motorsport.com. “It’s unfortunate, but he needs laps and has to find the rhythm to show his potential.”
“I think we need to give him more time. He didn’t know either of these circuits, Melbourne and this one. So we hope to see him alongside Max as soon as possible, but it also seems that our car is quite difficult to drive.”
Leave a Reply