Liam Lawson suggested missing FP3 proved costly after his disastrous Q1 exit in qualifying for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
The New Zealander’s Saturday at the Albert Park circuit got off to a poor start when he missed the entirety of FP3 thanks to a pneumatic issue with his Red Bull RB21.
In qualifying, things went from bad to worse, starting with a Turn 3 off during his second lap in Q1 that almost saw him touch the barriers.
Then, on his final run, pushing to avoid a Q1 elimination, Lawson went wide at Turn 13 and dropped out of qualifying at the first hurdle.
Lawson explained after qualifying how things went wrong.
“We expected the start of quali to be tough, to be honest,” Lawson told Sky F1 post-session.
“The first laps, we expected to be off, and then we were just planning on building through the session, but obviously going off on that second lap sort of put everything out of order a bit.
“Then the last lap was good, honestly, just until the last sector where I just had a big drop.”
Lawson acknowledged that “Missing P3 obviously doesn’t help any of this,” before adding “but I shouldn’t be going off in quali so…”
Turn 9 mishap triggered Q1 exit – Lawson
Lawson felt that his final Q1 run was going well, but a moment at Turns 9 and 10 proved costly for the Red Bull debutante and by the time he arrived at Turn 13, his tyres were beyond saving him from a costly off-track excursion.
“Before Turn 9, we were about half a second up,” he said.
“Then, obviously, we would have kept improving, but I already had a snap through Turns 9 and 10.
“I think the tyres were already starting to drop there. So that’s something we’ve just been battling this weekend.”
Lawson then reiterated the importance of missing out on FP3.
“Obviously it’s something that we missed practicing in FP3,” he said.
“We definitely overheated at the end of the lap, but I don’t… obviously it’s something we’ll look into it. Would it have helped doing FP3?
“I think today was a sort of quali prep day. Everybody was using soft tyres this morning. I think we had the car in a good window.
“Honestly, it wasn’t bad. And the lap we were on was perfectly fine.
“I just had a snap through the high speed. I think that overheated the tyres, and then the last sector was basically gone from there.”
Lawson predicting tough Australian GP
Asked whether team-mate Max Verstappen qualifying third was an encouraging sign heading into the race, Lawson said Sunday will be a tall order from his lowly standing of 18th on the grid.
“I haven’t really done much high-fuel running,” he said.
“I think we made a big step today, or at least Max did this morning, and the car was in a better window, which was positive.
“So, yeah, I think obviously for me, just not doing the laps made it pretty tough.
“But obviously, where we’re starting, it’s gonna be very, very tough tomorrow.”
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