Still in the top 10
After a negative start to the season in Australia, with the first race of the world championship finishing in 13th place, the last two events of the world championship ended with rather satisfactory results for Liam Lawson. While in China the New Zealander took 7th place in both the Sprint and the long race, a Suzuka the Racing Bulls driver repeated himself with another placing in the points, this time in ninth position.
Safety Car: pros and cons
A race which, contrary to expectations following the colorless performance in qualifying, turned into a comeback dictated partly by strategy and, above all, by luck due to the entry on the track of the Safety Car which allowed him to recover other positions. An episode that proved favorable to the New Zealander, the first to recognize that, without what happened, the final result would have been complex to achieve: “I’m very happy with today. Starting from where we were and the doubts we had due to yesterday’s problems, the team did a great job in rebalancing the car, which led to a solid race. The first part of the race was really tough, but we managed to find a better speed window during the Hard stint towards the end. We were also a bit lucky with the Safety Car, which helped us get into the points. Without it, it would have been difficult to end up where we areso it’s good to bring home a positive result. That’s three points finishes in the last two races, which gives us good momentum heading into the break. I will take time in training and with the team to reflect on the last month before Miami as we continue to work to improve.”
The exact opposite, however, happened to his teammate Arvid Lindblad. Surprisingly ninth in qualifying on a track he had never faced before in his career, the Briton entered the ‘list’ of drivers who paid dearly for the introduction of the Safety Car following Oliver Bearman’s bad accident, to the point of leaving the points zone and relegating to 14th placewhere Lawson’s race began: “The moment the Safety Car came in is probably what penalized us the most Today. I was in tenth position up to that point, and then I slipped to fourteenth. From then on, we no longer had the pace to catch up. It’s a shame, but we already knew before the start that it would be a more defensive than offensive race. It’s disappointing not to get any points today, but well done to the team and Liam. There were some things this weekend that didn’t favor us, but I will use the April break to work hard and put myself in the best position possible for Miami.”
