Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand F1 driver Liam Lawson. FLORENT GOODEN / PHOTOSPORT
Liam Lawson showed some racing maturity and survived a clash with his team-mate to pick up valuable points at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.
Lawson finished seventh after starting in the same position, but avoided some carnage on the track and for once came out on the right side of a Racing Bulls change of strategy.
Two safety cars in the first ten laps ended Ferrari’s race, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri copped a 10 second penalty for causing a collision, ending any hope he had of challenging team-mate and championship leader Lando Norris.
However, Lawson managed to avoid the crashes and complete his third best finish of the season (fifth in Azerbaijan and sixth in Austria).
“We made the one stop work…. just,” the 23-year-old Kiwi said afterwards.
The soft compound tyres proved ineffective on the Interlagos circuit and so Racing Bulls pitted both cars early to change to mediums.
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson. ALBERTO VIMERCATI / PHOTOSPORT
Lawson then raced the remaining 50 laps on the same set of tyres and managed to hold off Nico Hulkenberg and team-mate Isack Hadjar.
“It was very tough towards the end, the tyres were in good shape at that point, but it’s super sensitive around here,” he said.
“If you push too much in one corner, you pay the price in the next one, therefore tyre management was key.
“On top of that, I was trying to manage energy to make sure I had power down the straights. The strategy worked well for us, so a big congratulations to the team – it’s been a massive effort to have both cars in the points today.”
With Hadjar making a second pit stop, he was on fresher soft tyres at the end and he and Lawson came together at a corner on the final lap. Fortunately both still managed to finish with the Frenchman eighth.
“It’s the last lap of a race, I don’t think anyone can expect, as much as it’s the ideal thing to do, there is no way that we weren’t going to race for a position like that,” Lawson said.
“I respect it, we’re lucky that we came out of it, but it’s been a great weekend for the team.”
The result moves Lawson up one spot to 14th in the Drivers’ Championship and he is now just seven points behind ninth placed Nico Hulkenberg.
Top ten finishes for both cars also meant Racing Bulls ended a streak of three Grands Prix without points.
“It’s been a barren spell for us, so to come back here and qualify so well, to then having both cars in the points is a superb effort,” said team principal Alan Permane.
“We outscore all our rivals in the Championship and give ourselves a healthier gap to 7th in the constructors championship.
“It was very close between both Liam and Isack; we split the strategies, and they ended up racing each other, which we trusted them to do, and Liam came out on top with an excellently managed one-stop strategy.”
Norris won the race to extend his championship lead to 24 points over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri who finished fifth.
Kimi Antonelli was second, while Max Verstappen was third after starting the race from pit lane.
The next round is in Las Vegas in a fortnight with the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
