The new season of Formula 1 has kicked off in dramatic fashion, with lots of retirements and battery strategy being pivotal to a good result.
The race started with drama before lights out after hometown hero Oscar Piastri crashed on the way to the grid. Lawson also reported battery charging issues on the formation lap, but the team reported that it should be fine for the race start. At the same time, Audi reported that Hulkenberg had suffered a technical issue and wouldn’t be able to start the race.
When the race started, Charles Leclerc managed to get past pole sitter George Russell into the first corner to take the lead. Liam Lawson was able to get off the line, but the car had no power or drive as he dawdled out of his grid box. Lawson was lucky to avoid being hit in the initial stages of the start, where Franco Colapinto hit the wall, avoiding a slow Lawson. This sent Lawson down the field, and he was sitting in seventeenth at the end of the first lap.
On the other side of the Racing Bulls garage, Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad managed to get up into fourth after the first lap, but still fell down to sixth by lap 4.
Leclerc and Russell traded the lead for a few laps, but the battle climaxed on lap 9 where Leclerc and Russell fought hard, which allowed Lewis Hamilton to come back into the equation. At the same time, Lawson sat in fifteenth, on mediums.
The first Virtual Safety Car of the season came out on lap 12 after Isack Hadjar retired from the race with a power unit failure. Racing Bulls took this opportunity to pit Lawson, who swapped out his mediums for hards.
The VSC ended on lap 14, with some drivers electing to come in – but notably, the Ferrari duo and Lindblad voted to stay out. When the green flag dropped, Leclerc led from Hamilton, with Lindblad in fourth. Lawson, having come in for a stop during the VSC, sat in fourteenth.
Lawson came over the radio to report battery issues, to which his team didn’t have much of a solution. He reported that he was harvesting energy but had no power.
Lawson closed up to Sergio Perez on lap 17 and tried to go around the outside into turn three. Perez quickly shut the door, and after a bit of side-by-side contact, Lawson had to tuck back into fourteenth for the moment. He was able to get past a lap later.
A second VSC was called on lap 19 with the retirement of Valterri Bottas, who was stranded by the pit exit. Ferrari stayed out and missed the window to come into the pit lane as the pit lane entry was closed, much to the disappointment of Hamilton. The VSC ended on lap 20, and Verstappen made no problem getting past Lindblad to move up to sixth, after starting twentieth.
It soon came over the radio that the FIA stewards were investigating Sergio Perez for his driving conduct after potentially forcing Lawson off track.
Race leader Leclerc was called into the pit lane on lap 25 for a set of hard tyres. At the same time, it was announced that there was no further action being taken for the lap 17 incident between Perez and Lawson.
Russell swept past Hamilton on lap 28 to take the lead of the race. Hamilton came into the pit lane at the same time for his first, and only scheduled stop.
With 28 laps to go, Russell led over teammate Antonelli. Lawson sat in fourteenth, on the edge of getting lapped. The third VSC came out very briefly on lap 33 to recover debris, and Racing Bulls used this opportunity to pit Lawson again, but this time for a set of softs.
After briefly reappearing on track after his earlier ‘retirement’, Alonso headed into the lane again to park the car. Stroll joined him in the lane in what can only be called a disastrous start to the new season for Aston Martin.
Using his tyre offset, Lawson was able to get past Colapinto for thirteenth on lap 38. With 20 laps to go, Russell still led over Antonelli, with Leclerc and Hamilton sitting in third and fourth.
The race turned relatively processional at this point, with most drivers preserving tyre to be able to get to the end. However, Lawson was able to make solid headway into the Williams of Albon ahead, and the gap sat just over six seconds with 13 laps to go.
With ten laps to go, Lawson had brought the gap between himself and Albon down to under four seconds. That gap had closed to just over one second by lap 52. Lawson stalked Albon for many laps, even while nursing battery issues. His engineer said over the radio that “[They] can see the issue, but there’s nothing we can do for now. This is what we have”
Russell took the chequered flag by 3 seconds over teammate Antonelli. Ferrari took third and fourth, with Leclerc coming home in front of Hamilton. Rookie Lindblad did a great job to come home in a comfortable 8th.
Lawson’s challenging race ended with a thirteenth-place finish, just behind Albon and over a lap behind winner Russell. Verstappen finished in a notable sixth place, bringing home the fan-awarded Driver of the Day.
Formula 1 is back next week for the Chinese Grand Prix, with FP1 kicking off on the 13th March at 4:30 pm NZST.
Thanks for the detailed information of what happened to Lawson as there seems to be zero coming forth from F1 commentary at the time of the race. Much appreciated.