RaceFans Round-up: Tsunoda’s crash cost me Q3 spot

In brief

Lawson sure he would have reached Q3

Lawson was eliminated from Q2 in 12th place, just behind his team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who crashed out at the end of the session. That brought out red flags which prevented drivers including Lawson from completing their laps.

Had it not been for Tsunoda’s crash, Lawson is convinced he would have reached Q3. “We had a good first sector, found nearly a tenth,” he told the official F1 channel.

“It was very tight, honestly. I was obviously through into Q2 and looking at the times, it was extremely tight. But all weekend we’ve been building. It was a tidy lap. Having completed the lap we were on, I think we should have easily been through. So it’s frustrating. But it’s one of these things. Obviously we were out at the back, so this is the risk that we run.”

Albon “grateful” for Williams repairs

Alexander Albon thanked his Williams mechanics for the repair work to his car after his practice crash forced him to miss the majority of track time on Friday before he secured ninth on the grid for today’s Mexican Grand Prix.

“First of all, an amazing job from everyone at the team,” Albon said. “I’ve had a bit of damage in the last two weekends and they’ve had a lot of work to do. So I’m very grateful for that. Hopefully we can score some points.”

McLaren’s Ugochukwu takes first FREC win

McLaren junior driver Ugo Ugochukwu claimed his first Formula Regional European Championship race win – his first in any Formula Regional series – in the first race of the weekend at Monza.

Ugochukwu started on pole when qualifying was cancelled on Friday by virtue of setting the fastest time in the pre-event test session. After leading most of the race, Ugochukwu held off series champion Rafael Camara over a final lap restart, taking victory by three tenths of a second over the Ferrari junior driver. Former Ferrari junior James Wharton completed the podium in third.