Liam Lawson left the Canadian Formula 1 GP with a sense of relief, after one of the most challenging weekends of his season. The Racing Bulls driver finished the race in seventh place and matched his best result in the championship, even after facing serious technical problems in Montreal.
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Lawson revealed that he practically ‘survived’ the race held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The recovery came after a turbulent start to the weekend, which compromised much of his preparation for the Sprint race and the main GP.
The problems began during free practice, when a technical failure limited the New Zealander to just five laps before the Sprint qualifying. According to the driver, the severity of the problem prevented the team from resolving the situation in time for the session.
As a result, Lawson was unable to participate in the Sprint qualifying and had to compete in the Saturday Sprint race with extremely limited mileage on the Canadian circuit. The driver acknowledged that the lack of track time made the rest of the weekend even more difficult: “Honestly, it was a crazy weekend. I had never experienced something like this, losing an entire day,” Lawson said in an interview with F1.
He highlighted that teams usually manage to rebuild cars quickly, but explained that the problem faced by Racing Bulls was particularly severe: “Teams are very good at rebuilding cars. But the problem we had was serious and, here in Canada, you can’t recover the car during the session,” he stated.
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Despite the difficulties, Lawson managed to bounce back in the qualifying session for the GP and came close to advancing to Q3. The New Zealander ended up starting outside the top 10 but took advantage of some competitors’ retirements during the race to enter the points zone.
In the final part of the race, Lawson still had to hold off Pierre Gasly from Alpine to secure seventh position. The result matched his best performance of the season and represented an important relief after a weekend marked by setbacks: “We almost got the car into Q3, but it was close. And in the race, we just survived,” he added.
Lawson also acknowledged that the retirements throughout the race played an important role in his final result: “Many drivers retired, and we survived,” concluded the Racing Bulls driver.
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