Liam Lawson: We have managed to take a big step forward

During qualifying for the sprint on a very fast circuit in Qatar, Liam Lawson managed to stay ahead of his teammate and reached the final session, where he achieved the 9th fastest time, but finished in 10th place on the timesheet. his best lap was disallowed because he went off track.

Yuki Tsunoda was unlucky this time; the Japanese driver dropped out of the race at the very beginning of qualifying.

Liam Lawson (10th): “To be honest, we managed to take a big step forward. At first we were not so fast, and in such a situation we usually create difficulties for ourselves, because we then have to put much more effort to reach the required speeds.

It’s great that we managed to improve, although it is a shame that my lap in the last session was canceled. This is just one feature, but in our industry everything is important.

There is always the opportunity to squeeze extra speed out of the car, and of course we will try to figure out how to do this in the evening. During the training we did a more or less long series of laps, so we will analyze the data collected and try to regain some positions during the sprint.

Because we have been deprived of one position, this will affect our race on Saturday, because points based on the results are only awarded to the top eight, and to earn anything we have to move forward.

Obviously the fight is very exciting and Alpine and Haas cars will start ahead of me – these are the teams we are competing with in the Constructors’ Championship. That’s why I will try to stay ahead of them, this is important for us.”

Yuki Tsunoda (17th): “It was a very difficult session and I don’t know why we arrived on track so late. During qualifying I constantly had to act hastily, which prevented me from taking the right position on the track.

To be honest, I did everything I could, but I just couldn’t utilize the car’s full potential, even though I felt there were opportunities to do so. However, it’s too late to talk about it now, the qualifications are already over. But we could and should have done better, that’s for sure.”