Liam Lawson never had a chance to qualify well up the grid for the United States Grand Prix due to his grid penalty for a power unit change.
However, in the first of his six races as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement at RB, he gave an immediate sign Red Bull may have made a wise decision by bringing him in.
Lawson produced a superb lap time in Q1 which stood as RB’s quickest time of the day – and, barring an unusual development in the grand prix – the weekend. He set a 1’33.339 which was quicker than team mate Yuki Tsunoda managed.
Had Lawson set that time in Q2, and he did not attempt to set a time in that session because of his penalty, he would have reached the final round of qualifying. This is especially galling for Tsunoda, as RB pressed Lawson into service on his behalf, giving him a slipstream on the straight, to no avail.
“Liam delivered a fantastic Q1 with his best lap time being good enough to make Q3,” said technical director Jody Egginton. “But with his PU penalty meaning he will start from the back, it was decided to use him to help Yuki in Q2 which together with his engineer he managed to achieve very well indeed across the two runs in Q2.”
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It’s a promising start for Lawson, who knows that if he performs well enough at RB he could be in line for a promotion to Red Bull, potentially even as early as next year. After all, Sergio Perez only managed 11th and 10th on the grids for this weekend’s two races.
Lawson showed RB had the pace to beat Haas. The VF-24 drivers had a strong day on Saturday, scoring enough points in the sprint race to draw level with their rivals on points (and ahead of them in the standings by dint of Nico Hulkenberg’s superior race finishes).
So, despite Kevin Magnussen lining up ninth quickest for Haas, the team only actually out-paced two of their rivals in qualifying. Nonetheless their upgrade clearly paid off.
The same is true of Alpine. Pierre Gasly had the only example of their new hardware, and used it to take a superb seventh on the grid.
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“I’m very happy,” he admitted afterwards. “It’s been quite a long time since we made it to Q3 and I must say it was very enjoyable driving the car.
“We made quite a lot of changes after the sprint, still exploring this new package, and there were directions that we wanted to explore. And I think clearly…
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