Lawson falls short of points in “frustrating” Austin outing

Liam Lawson’s United States Grand Prix proved a frustrating affair, with the Kiwi spending much of the race trapped behind his rivals and ultimately falling short of the points.

As reported by Sky Sports F1’s pitlane reporter, Ted Kravitz, Lawson’s troubles in Austin began even before the five lights went out, with the #30 VCARB 02 dropping from the rear jack on arrival to the grid and sustaining damage to its rear wing, necessitating a component change just moments before the formation lap.

The Kiwi didn’t report any lingering issues from the last-minute rear wing change, though it wouldn’t have been surprising if the disruption had taken a toll on Lawson, especially given his unfavourable start.

Launching off the line from twelfth on the grid, Lawson instantly lost a position to the fast-charging Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, with his replacement cruising up the order while the Kiwi found himself boxed in on the inside of the first corner.

“I gave the race everything I could but didn’t have the strongest start as I was boxed at Turn 1,” Lawson said.. 

“That place probably cost us a point, however, overall, the pace wasn’t strong enough today.”

After narrowly avoiding contact with Fernando Alonso ahead and Gabriel Bortoleto behind, Lawson struggled to recover the ground he had lost, only gaining two positions when a fortunate Virtual Safety Car — triggered by Carlos Sainz’s collision with Kimi Antonelli — brought him up the order.

The Kiwi put in his best defensive efforts from P11 to keep Pierre Gasly at bay, with the Alpine driver clawing his way within DRS range just three laps after the VSC period had concluded, though Gasly was unable to maintain his threatening pace, dropping back from Lawson as the race progressed.

With his medium tyres starting to give way, Lawson followed Alonso into the pitlane, gaining four-tenths on the Aston Martin driver as they emerged on the soft compound.

The view of the #14 Aston Martin remained in the Kiwi’s sights through to the chequered flag, with Alonso’s teammate occupying Lawson’s mirrors as they worked in tandem to keep the Racing Bulls driver out of the final points position.

By Lap 48, the trio had formed a mini DRS train, but as temperatures rose and the need for tyre preservation increased, the intervals blew out to over a second, minimising the slipstream advantage Lawson had over Alonso.

“It’s very hard to overtake, and Aston had us, basically, one in front, one behind, so they had us… Basically, had control of us, which was frustrating,” Lawson explained.

“I couldn’t overtake Fernando, and I was just having to defend from behind, so yeah, a frustrating race.”

Unable to make further progress from eleventh on track, Lawson had to settle for finishing just over three seconds outside the points in Austin, mirroring the near-miss of his P9 result in Saturday’s Sprint.

Despite having high confidence and expectations coming into the United States Grand Prix weekend, neither Racing Bulls driver managed to score points in either the Sprint or main event, with Isack Hadjar taking the chequered flag in a disappointing P16 after a costly crash in Qualifying left him at the back of the grid. 

“It’s frustrating as there have been points available throughout the weekend which we missed out on, but we’ll take our learnings into Mexico next weekend,” the #30 concluded.

Lawson and his teammate won’t have to wait long before they can stake their claim at a return to the points, though, with part two of the current double header flying the grid down to Mexico for this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix. 

Returning to a conventional weekend format, Lawson’s first hour of track action will take place at 05:30 AEST on Saturday, October 25.

Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

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