Liam Lawson feels more was on the table after qualifying P9 for F1 Hungarian GP

Liam Lawson after qualifying P9 at the Hungarian GP
Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
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Liam Lawson qualified in P9 at the F1 Hungarian GP, finishing just one place behind former teammate Max Verstappen. However, he believes that there was a lot more potential left in the car.

Throughout the qualifying session, both Racing Bulls drivers were showing a lot of promise. They were consistently improving their lap times and appeared to be very competitive, particularly with Isack Hadjar as the Kiwi looked a couple of tenths behind.

However, the weather turned going into Q3. Wind direction changes and lower track temperatures meant that the drivers had to react to the changing conditions. It appeared to affect some more than others, and Lawson was unable to improve on his Q2 time. He finished in 9th place, with teammate Isack Hadjar in 10th after a mistake.

Missed potential

Lawson believes that his P9 position does not reflect the true potential of what he could have achieved.

Speaking post-qualifying, he revealed that the performance of the VCARB02 appeared to fall away during Q3. He said in the print media pen that he was only ‘reasonably’ pleased with his performance today.

“I think from where we were yesterday and this morning, it’s a good step. But to be honest, the potential we had during the session, I think, was a lot more.

“We were gradually finding time, and then we went to Q3, and it kind of just fell away. The conditions changed, and I don’t know why it just seemed to affect us more.”

Surprise competition

Aston Martin shocked the field with their qualifying results. Sitting in P5 and P6, it marked their most successful qualifying this season.

Liam Lawson revealed that he didn’t believe that they would be as strong as they were, stating that he had been a “little naive.”

“We kind of just thought that maybe they were running a little bit light through practice, but clearly they’ve just got good speed.”

“And yeah, it was probably naive of us to think that. So they’ve done a good job.”

He also finished right behind reigning World Champion Max Verstappen. However, this didn’t seem to be very important to Lawson.

“Honestly, it doesn’t make a difference. The fact is, we had more potential in the car today to be where we are in P9, and we didn’t extract that.”

Looking towards the race

Despite his disappointment, Liam Lawson believes that Racing Bulls can progress during tomorrow’s race. When asked who he is targeting, he revealed that he has set the two Aston Martin drivers in his sights.

“I think we won’t have the pace for Max, probably. But we will try and target the Sauber in front of us and the Astons.”

“I think the Astons are very, very fast. Their quality of pace has been good. I think that’ll translate in the race as well. So yeah, I think maybe that’s going to be tricky for us, especially because we have two of them. But we also have two of us, so we’ll do the best we can.”