F1 Monza GP – Lawson after qualifying: “It’s heartbreaking when you make a stupid mistake and go out”
It was a night to forget for Liam Lawson in qualifying at Monza, as the RB driver will start Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix from 20th position. After a costly mistake on his final Q1 attempt, Lawson was left at the back of the grid and will have to fight his way through the field tomorrow.
His teammate Isack Hadjar also struggled to progress beyond Q1. The French driver had only managed 16th place, but he will drop to the pit lane due to a power unit change penalty. For Lawson, however, the setback came from his own error rather than the car.
The New Zealander admitted it was his mistake. The RB had actually improved over the weekend and, as he put it, it was “a shame not to show it today.” On Sunday, Lawson will aim to recover positions, demonstrate the strong pace the team has shown this weekend, and complete as many overtakes as possible.
Lawson’s words
At the end of qualifying, Liam Lawson immediately admitted his error: “I just understeered, I made a mistake and I lost the lap time. It’s a shame because the car has been really fast this weekend. We tried to put everything into that last lap and it cost us.”
In an interview, the RB driver explained that he had underestimated the tyres, though not in terms of temperature or degradation. Lawson said: “I think normally we don’t expect a used tyre to be as good as a new one, and I think some drivers were improving with used tyres on their first lap.”
He continued: “We just put a bit more pressure on ourselves to try and put everything into the last lap. But that’s not an excuse, we still should have managed it. For me personally, I had a car ahead in the middle sector, then I understeered and went off. And that’s what cost us.”
On tyre management, Lawson added: “I think the tyres are working well at the moment. Even in the races, on average we’ve been seeing quite low degradation. It’s not necessarily a negative thing, it’s just something we need to work around.”
Expectations for the Italian GP
It is always frustrating when you know you have good pace in the car and could have achieved a solid qualifying, but end up at the back due to a simple mistake. Lawson admitted: “Yes, it’s heartbreaking when you go through the first two corners and you’re already frustrated with yourself, you make a stupid mistake and go out. It’s a tough one, obviously. You can’t be too close to the car ahead or you get dirty air. You can do it from a couple of seconds behind. And when I tried to push the limits, I expected more front grip than I had. And it just cost us.”
Asked about his goals for the race, Lawson made it clear he still believes in his chances: “We’ll try to climb back up. There are a lot of cars to overtake, but we’ll do our best. Yesterday we had good long-run pace. And I think we’ve improved the car as well, honestly, so it’s a shame not to have shown it today. But yes, there are a lot of cars we will need to overtake.”
Finally, when questioned if the understeer was caused by a car issue, the New Zealander dismissed the idea: “No, I think the car has been really fast this weekend. Honestly we’ve had a lot of problems we’ve been trying to fix, and I think we succeeded. We didn’t have any issues in qualifying, it just didn’t go the way we wanted.”
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