A year ago, on the occasion of the Japanese GP, Liam Lawson came back in Racing Bulls after a disappointing start to the season in Red Bull, a team that decided to replace him with home idol Yuki Tsunoda during the championship in progress. Today, again with the single-seater of the Faenza team, the New Zealander took part in the first two free practice sessions on the Suzuka track, finishing with a good 8th half in FP1, but not entering the ‘points zone’ in the following session with 12th place.
An overall performance which, however, satisfied the 24-year-old, even more than a season after that negative turn in his career, when the chance to demonstrate his potential in a top team ended: “It’s great to be back at Suzuka e I had a really pleasant day – he commented – things are very different than last year with these new cars. We made some changes between FP1 and FP2 because we were struggling with the car at high speed, but we managed to improve the balance and we learned a lot in the process. We are now in a good position to get the car into an optimal window for tomorrow’s qualifying. It will be a close fight, so everything is still at stake.”
Finally, there was a certain curiosity about ‘s debut at Suzuka Arvid Lindbladwho has already amazed on his F1 debut this season. The British, in fact, signed the 10th time in FP1only to then remain in the pits in the Japanese afternoon due to a breakdown: “Today was a bit of an unlucky day. We had a gearbox problem in FP2which is why I couldn’t shoot in that session. Both Liam and I started with a similar set-up in FP1, but we found the same limitations of the car, so we decided to proceed in a similar direction to try to improve: he was happier, so it’s promising for tomorrow. Overall, the track is really fun to drive and I can’t wait for the grip to increase, especially in qualifying. It’s hard to know where we’ll be at the moment, but the mid-table group is pretty tight. We will work together with the team to try to get to Q3.”
