Liam Lawson says “the potential was there” to make Q3 at the Italian Grand Prix as the Kiwi impressed again in only his second Formula 1 qualifying session.
The AlphaTauri driver, deputising for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, avoided being knocked out in Q1 and ultimately wound up 12th, only one place behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Although Lawson was happy with the progress AlphaTauri made overnight, he admits he was still looking for more despite his limited experience.
“It was a decent session but I think we definitely had more time in it and with both cars so close to Q3, it was obviously clear the potential was there,” said Lawson.
“A little disappointing, but happy with the step we made from yesterday, just a little bit more to come.”
Given Tsunoda was only 0.013s away from making it into the top-10 shootout, Lawson has a right to be disappointed at missing out along with his team-mate.
But having only jumped in the AT04 last Saturday at Zandvoort, The Red Bull Junior driver admits there’s still a bit more to learn.
“It’s always that last little bit that’s the hardest so we’ve hopefully closed the main gap, it’s the last little bit to come,” he added.
“Adjusting and getting used to Formula 1 takes so much commitment with these cars, but we are definitely getting there.”
There was plenty of adjusting needed to be done not only for Lawson but the rest of the grid as Monza’s qualifying session saw the second rollout of the Alternate Tyre Allocation, mandating the use of the Hard tyre in Q1, the Medium tyre in Q2, and the Soft tyre in Q3.
Coming to terms with the change in grip levels between each session was a steep learning curve for Lawson, who emphasised it was in the minor details where he must to improve.
“It’s little things like knowing the step up in grip from compound to compound, when you make changes what it’s going to do to the car, things like that that you have to feel first before you can know where to use the extra grip or whatever,” he said.
“You always look back and go ‘yeah, there’s little bits I could’ve done better,’ so for sure, there’s stuff I’ll look back at, but we will learn from it, I’m sure.”
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