Liam Lawson revealed his tyres “started too hot” on his final flying lap in SQ1 in Shanghai, meaning he was unable to improve.

The Red Bull driver is set to line up 20th and last on the grid after not improving his initial time in the session, but explained his attempts to cool the tyres on track rather than in the pit lane did not pay off.

Liam Lawson ‘really struggled’ with tyres as P20 start awaits in Chinese GP Sprint

While Red Bull team-mate and four-time World Champion Max Verstappen is due to start on the front row for the Sprint on Saturday, Lawson, on his first outing at the Shanghai International Circuit, will be lining up at the back.

After setting a time good enough to get through to SQ2 initially, the track conditions improved as most drivers improved their times for a second run on the mandated medium tyres for the session.

For Lawson, however, he took to team radio after being knocked out and explained to race engineer Richard Wood: “Mate, I’m really sorry but I just… I honestly could not get the tyres down.”

Speaking to the media afterwards, Lawson explained that translated to the tyre temperatures not being able to decrease while on a ‘cool’ lap, meaning he started his ‘push’ lap with the tyres too warm to begin with.

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He ran too deep and grazed the gravel at Turns 9 and 10, which was enough to see him out of the session at the first hurdle.

“Just the second lap, I went off,” Lawson said after the session.

“So, it’s obviously a shame. I think, from a starting point, it wasn’t too bad, the first lap was alright, and then we were just looking to build on there, but we stayed out to try and cool the tyres on track.

“To be honest, I really struggled to get the temps down starting the second lap, so basically, we started too hot and then through the lap, I just struggled. It’s frustrating.

“It’s really a shame, because honestly I think we started okay in quali, and first lap wasn’t amazing but it was relatively okay, so it’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating.

“Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are, so obviously we have tomorrow’s sprint race to try and learn some stuff, and then tomorrow’s quali as well – we want to do a better job than this.”

Lawson will have another chance to qualify after Saturday’s Sprint, with Chinese Grand Prix qualifying due to take place on Saturday afternoon in Shanghai.

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