LAWSON’S FIRST F1 PRACTICE AT SPA

Young Kiwi Liam Lawson completed his first official F1 drive in an Alpha Tauri AT03 in a rain affected practice session, his fastest lap time registering at 1:52.065 around the revamped historical SPA circuit.

The time saw Lawson  finish in P19 of the 20 drivers in Pierre Gasly’s car, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas not recording a time, limited to only two laps.

Lawson came out and tested for 14 laps in the one hour session, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz setting the benchmark time of 1:46.538.

There was a keen interest in how the 20 year old Red Bull reserve driver would lap against the Alpha Tauri Honda signed Yuki Tsunoda, and ex-teammate of his in the Euro Formula Open, who put in a lap best 1:48.310 over 17 completed laps, +1.772s off Sainz in P8.

Lawson picked up pace throughout the session and looked quite comfortable on the super fast Spa track, with the early time being set by Lando Norris at 1:49.712, which he was initially +4.400s behind, but never got the chance to put the soft’s on after building up on the hard’s.

“it was a crazy experience. It was unfortunate we didn’t get to run the soft’s at the end cause I had a nice ten laps to build up on the hard’s and not over push, just getting used to it,”Lawson said.

“The limit is so much further than you’re ready for with these cars, so it definitely took a bit of time.

“But towards the end of it I started to feel quite comfortable and the tyres were dropping off a bit because I’d done a few laps, but I was definitely ready to put the softs on.

“It’s a crazy step up, doing this really helps us junior drivers to be ready when the chance eventually comes, the cars are a lot more complicated, it took me a while to get my head around it.

“I was going through drivers manuals all night just making sure I was ready to operate the car.

Charles Leclerc ended up coming in P2, just 0.069 behind his teammate mate, with championship leader Max Verstappen taking P3, +0.858s in front of George Russell.

Daniel Ricciardo posted a 1:48.081 to finish in P7, whilst his McLaren teammate couldn’t better his early pace setting benchmark over 15 laps with a P13.

There has been some extra spice added to this Grand Prix, with a host of front runners taking grid penalties for having elements of their power units fitted. Championship rivals Verstappen and Leclerc will compete from the back, as well as Norris, Esteban Ocon, Mick Schumacher and Bottas.

After his Formula1 session, Lawson then qualified in P6 in the F2 with a time of 1:58.976, just +0.744s off Felipe Drugovich in pole.

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