Liam Lawson admits “it’s a shame to finish like this” after coming home 17th in this morning’s Qatar Grand Prix, having battled with car pace and challenging conditions on the Lusail International Circuit. The race is believed to be Lawson’s last of 2023, with Daniel Ricciardo expected to return for the United States Grand Prix in two weeks.
Having qualified 18th, Lawson struggled to make ground through the early stages, with the mandated 18-lap stints for tyre safety concerns limiting any possible progress.
“It was really tricky out there, he said. “From the start of the race, we had no speed, and throughout, we were managing some stability issues, so it’s something to analyse. It was very hot, and when you’re struggling with the car, it makes it even harder to extract the pace.
“It seems to be my last race with the team before Daniel comes back, so I want to say a big thank you to the team.”
Max Verstappen dominated race proceedings to claim his 14th win of 2023, topping yesterday’s Sprint winner Oscar Piastri and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, respectively.
It was another strong performance from the Australian rookie, Piastri, who charged from sixth on the grid for his third consecutive podium.
Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were casualties of a dramatic opening lap, with the two coming together at Turn 1, forcing the former to retire and the latter to fall to the rear of the field.
Russell started on the front row next to Verstappen, who moved to cover the British driver off the line. Hamilton, starting on soft tyres compared to the mediums of Verstappen and Russell, moved around the pair, only to make contact with his teammate, popping his left rear off and resulting in him spinning into the gravel. Russell also turned but was able to resume.
Piastri had surged to second off the line, where he sat on the Lap 5 restart behind Verstappen and with Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc behind.
The newly-crowned 2023 World Champion would slowly build a lead over the opening stint, with the McLaren behind forced to fend off challenges of those who had stopped under the Safety Car.
The lead sat at over 10 seconds entering the final round of stops, and Norris had made ground into the podium places and was a threat to his teammate, who struggled to get his final tyres up to temperature.
Verstappen lost time with a rare problem on his final stop but had built a gap large enough to take the chequered flag 4.8 seconds ahead of Piastri.
Norris would face the same difficulty with his change and was left worried about a late challenge from Russell, who had worked his way through the field to sit fourth, having made ground under the Safety Car and overcutting several competitors.
Both McLarens withstood the late challenge from the sole remaining Mercedes, earning a double podium that moves them to 11 points of Aston Martin, in fourth, on the Constructors standings.
Leclerc and Alonso were left battling on several occasions for fifth, with the former prevailing after the Aston Martin driver ran wide at Turn 2 following the second round of stops.
Lawson wasn’t alone in struggling with the conditions, as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon threw up into his helmet on Lap 15. He was able to endure the race to come home a commendable seventh.
Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.
It was another disappointing result for Perez, who was slapped with three five-second penalties for repeated track limit violations. Others, including Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, also struggled with this.
Logan Sargeant was the race’s second retiree, forced to withdraw due to an illness. Carlos Sainz did not make the start as Ferrari detected an issue with the fuel system on his car ahead of the race.
Lawson’s teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, also struggled for pace and came home 15th.
“Today was tough and felt hotter than Singapore, so it was definitely a challenging race,” said Tsunoda. “My start was good and smooth; I made up places and was in the points. It felt ok inside the car, and the balance was also good, but we were just too slow and couldn’t keep up the pace.
“It’s not easy to find a quick solution, but I’m confident that together with the team, we’ll look through the data and see how we can improve for the future.
“I think Liam might not be driving for us in Austin, so I want to say thank you to him because he did a very good job. I enjoyed the time together as good friends and teammates.”
AlphaTauri Head of Vehicle Performance, Guillaume Dezoteux, spoke after the race, saying, “The race today was constrained by the maximum number of laps we could do on each tyre set, which was 18.
“For Liam, starting towards the back of the grid, we tried to start aggressively on the soft compound tyre in an attempt to attack other cars at the start and pit at the first opportunity, which happened during the Safety Car period. Unfortunately, Liam has been struggling to find the pace after his first stop.
“The pace in the third stint was closer to Yuki, and he was able to further improve towards the end of the race on the medium compound, but it wasn’t good enough to catch the cars in front.
“Yuki’s race was also difficult. In his third stint, he was able to stay with Magnussen, but a battle with him and Albon – who had just pitted behind – overstressed his tyres, and he started to lose ground. Since Singapore, we have been on a positive trend with our car performance, both in qualifying and the race, but here in Doha, we didn’t manage to achieve the same.
“We need to analyse the balance evolution and tyre status because we couldn’t match our direct competitors today.”
The United States Grand Prix takes place on October 23, while Lawson will return to action at the Super Formula season finale double-header at Suzuka on October 27-29.
Header Image: Getty Image/Red Bull Content Pool
