Liam Lawson reflects on missed points in Imola, Monaco, and Spain due to poor qualifying despite strong race pace and car performance.
Liam Lawson believes he could have scored more points during the triple-header that took place in Imola, Monaco, and Barcelona. The Racing Bulls driver regrets the difficult qualifying sessions, even though the races themselves were much better.
“Qualifying hasn’t been good enough for us overall,” Lawson stated. “We missed out in Monaco and we missed out in Spain, and that put us in positions where we’re fighting against cars that are faster than us. It feels like a waste. The car was so quick; we’re genuinely fast over the long runs.”
The New Zealander tried to make some strong overtakes, notably against Oliver Bearman, but was penalized: “I was trying to overtake in line with the regulations. I was making sure my front wheels were ahead at the apex, which they were, quite clearly. I didn’t even feel the contact.”
“We were catching him by a second per lap. The contact was entirely my fault, but the following lap he was still battling me. We’re here to race, so there’s nothing I can do, but obviously, we’re both losing race time like that.”
Lawson believes this also demonstrates that the car is fast, even with the technical directive on flexible wings: “The race pace has been very good. The race pace in Spain was strong; we’re wearing out our tyres behind other cars and still have good speed.”
“I think this regulation potentially suits us a bit, which is pretty cool. Obviously, we’ve only been on one track so far, so we’ll wait and see how things play out at others.”