Liam Lawson suffered another blow at the start of his Red Bull career as he qualified last for the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint on Friday. Lawson was looking to recover from a nightmare debut in Australia.
The New Zealander suffered a Q1 exit in Melbourne, which was effectively his home race. He then crashed out in slippery conditions during the race.
Inevitably, this has already led some to question Red Bull’s driver choice. They negotiated an early split with Sergio Perez and overlooked Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson’s teammate at the de facto junior team.
Lawson is unfamiliar with the circuit, and only had one hour of practice due to the Sprint format. But Christian Horner would still have expected far better.
His time of a 1:32.729 was a couple of tenths adrift of what he needed to reach SQ2. Max Verstappen was a full seven-tenths faster than the sister car.
Martin Brundle says ‘ouch’ after Liam Lawson qualifying woes at Chinese Grand Prix
Lawson took the chequered flag before the late flurry of laps in SQ1 at the Chinese Grand Prix, which saw him bumped all he way down to last place. Speaking over the radio, he put his troubles down to the tyres.
“Mate, I’m really sorry, honestly I just could not get the tyres down,” he said.
The 23-year-old has only driven in 12 races, the equivalent of around half a season. He may still be learning about the requirements of the Pirelli rubber.
During commentary for Sky Sports F1, pundit Martin Brundle expressed sympathy for the youngster. He knows he’ll face a fresh round of scrutiny, even if he still has time to salvage his weekend.
“Ouch,” Brundle said. “Ouch for Liam Lawson.”
Mark Webber’s warning to Liam Lawson may be one of the quotes of the season
Prior to the first race, Karun Chandhok suggested Lawson could ‘burn out’ at Red Bull after what he saw as a premature promotion. A string of drivers have struggled mightily in the seat next to Max Verstappen.
Chandhok may be right about Lawson based on the early evidence. The notoriously ruthless Red Bull have tried to take a more patient approach with their new driver, though, and may not begin to judge him until he visits tracks where he has some prior experience.
Former Red Bull driver Mark Webber says Lawson is climbing Everest without an ‘oxygen mask’ as Verstappen’s teammate. That will prove to be a memorable quote if he looks overwhelmed this season.
Elsewhere in Shanghai, Tsunoda reached SQ3, although he did have the aid of a slipstream of teammate Isack Hadjar en route.
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