Liam Lawson was one of the many unlucky drivers who could not perform satisfactorily at the 2025 F1 Imola GP due to the poorly timed Safety Car interruptions.
Before the Virtual Safety Car
After failing to make it past Q1 during qualifying, the Racing Bulls driver started the race from P16,.
During the opening lap, Lawson gained a position after overtaking Franco Colapinto. He was P17 before the first Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed.
Before his first pit stop on lap 10, Lawson was on the C5 yellow medium tyres.
After the Virtual Safety Car
After the VSC, he switched to the C4 white hard tyres in an attempt to stretch the stint and gain time — but the strategy ultimately failed due to the timing of the VSC.
“It just didn’t work for us, It ended our race,” Lawson admitted in the print media pen.
Despite the early stop strategy not paying off, the driver remained confident in the car’s potential.
“The car has been fast all weekend. I didn’t get to show it yesterday or today.”
Eliminating any chances of trying to make up positions and scoring points.
After the Safety Car, Lawson ran in P13. The two DNFs — Kimi Antonelli and Esteban Ocon — briefly gave the Kiwi an upper hand.
Lawson eventually finished his race at P14, +32.511 seconds behind winner, Max Verstappen. Fernando Alonso overtook him following the restart.
Looking forward to Monaco
After what he called a “bad weekend”, Lawson is determined to bounce back, and looks forward to his Formula 1 debut at Monaco.
“I just want to go there and get into it again.”
With Monaco expected to be less demanding on tyre degradation and a new two-stop rule in place, strategy may play a bigger role — but Lawson emphasized one thing remains unchanged:
“It’s about car speed and about being fast.”
Looking ahead, he hopes for a straightforward race and a strong qualifying performance in his pursuit of points.
