Liam Lawson completes fine F1 debut at Zandvoort with AlphaTauri Honda RBPT finishing the main Race in P13. From the late call up to replace injured driver Daniel Ricciardo, to completing 72 laps of the main race, Lawson made most of the opportunity of a life-time to carve his position on the grid of the Formula One Championship.
And, there was plenty to test the talented Red Bull Junior driver, adapting to car, track, weather conditions which switched from wet to dry, to pit-stops which amounted to total of 6. In fact, such evolving circumstances through-out the main race affected most seasoned of driver’s with total of 89 pit-stops from Lap 1 to Lap 67.
Having qualified back of the grid, #40 endured first curve balls when the Team double stacked driver’s – Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda– prompting Lawson with 10 second penalty for pit-lane violation.
Neither deterred, nor disheartened, the Kiwi renown for his determination, and mental stamina remained focused to edge out the competition, putting in best lap time of 1.14.820 in Lap 49, relative to Red Bull Racing winner Max Verstappen’s 1.13.889. AlphaTauri team-driver Yuki posted best lap time of 1.16.253.
With Lawson currently competing in Japan’s Super Formula Championship, standing P2 overall with Final Round in October, racing F1 at Zandvoort highlighted difference in levels, specifically car set-up, tyre range from racing Intermediates, to Red Soft C3, to Yellow Medium C4 which Liam used during race duration, to speed.
Remarkably, Lawson clocked average speed around the Netherlands circuit of 204.923 placing him 12th on the F1 Fastest Lap table compared to his stats winning Super Formula Round 5 Fuji Grand Prix of 190.025 kp/h over the 41 lap race.
With F1 Round 15 at Monza next weekend, and Ricciardo out of action, possibly until Singapore GP on September 15-17, chances are Liam will have another shot at refining his race-knowledge, experience and lead-in-time competing with AlphaTauri Team.
History can now serve the Kiwi well, having raced at Monza in F3 Championship in 2019 and 2020, followed by competing at the iconic Italian venue in F2 Championship in 2021 and 2022. Having banked P3 overall last season in F2, to P2 in Super Formula Japan, to debut race in F1 at Zandvoort, momentum has climbed over the course of 9 months, with all indications that Liam has eyes firmly set on securing position on F1 track, no sooner than now.
Header photo: Liam Lawson competes in F1 Round 14 at Zandvoort, Image AlphaTauri.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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