Liam Lawson has reflected on his below-par performance during F1 qualifying at the Australian GP.
Liam Lawson had a disastrous qualifying at the Australian GP, as his F1 debut with Red Bull unravelled on Saturday.
Struggling for pace in two practice sessions, Lawson’s Red Bull looked visibly off balance and twitching in corners.
His Red Bull developed a power unit ahead of the final practice session, adding further challenges to a difficult weekend.
Qualifying however proved to be the nadir of his weekend. Poor tyre temperature and off balance car resulted in P18 o on the grid for the race.
A difficult first qualifying for Liam Lawson
Speaking after qualifying, Lawson revealed he expected a tough day, and admitted his error in the dying seconds of Q1.
“We expected the start of Quali to be tough. To be honest, the first laps were expected to be off, and then we were just planning on building through the session. But obviously going off on that second lap put everything out of order a bit.
“And then [the] last lap was good, honestly, just until the last sector where I had a big drop so yeah missing P3 obviously doesn’t help any of this, but I shouldn’t be going off in Quali.”
Lawson then confirmed how his final attempt to progress to Q2 resulted in elimination.
“So before Turn 9, we were about half a second up. I’d already had a snap at Turns 9 and 10.
“I think tyres were already starting to drop there, so that’s something we’ve been battling this weekend and something that we missed practicing in P3. I haven’t really done much high-fuel running. I think we feel we have found improvements with the car regardless of this. Obviously, Max is in a very good position so we have definitely made a step.”
In a later interview with the media, Lawson said he was “stupid” in going wide, and hoped rain would help salvage his afternoon.
“I think we made a big step today, or at least Max said this morning the car was in a better window, which was positive. I think obviously, for me not doing the laps made it pretty tough.
“It’s not like this car’s way harder to drive, and that’s why I made mistakes. I think it’s a tough track, lack of lack of driving and then being stupid looking forward to the rain tomorrow.
“I would love some rain, I think it’s hard to overtake, so where we’re starting, if it’s dry, it’s gonna be pretty hard, so rain would be nice.”
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