Liam Lawson’s second Grand Prix outing saw him just miss out on the top ten in eleventh, but the New Zealander put up a good show at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver, standing in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, made it into Q2 for the first time in his very short FIA Formula 1 World Championship career on Saturday, and was less than two-tenths of a second of making the top ten shootout.
Lawson said he was using his practice sessions to further build his confidence behind the wheel of the AT04 having only stepped into the car for the first time in final practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, and he was happy to get as close to the top ten as he did.
“Overall, we’ve been progressing over the sessions, building up my confidence,” said Lawson after Saturday’s Qualifying session. “You can feel the limit, but it’s also about knowing the step up in grip between the different compounds, if you make changes what it’s going to do to the car, and that just takes some time.
“With both cars being so close to Q3, we definitely had the potential to make it, but unfortunately, [Fernando] Alonso went off the track right in front of me, so there was some gravel on my line. However, it would’ve been tight regardless.
“I’m happy to have made some improvements and I’m sure there’s more to come.”
Lawson says there were things that could have gone better on race day, such as his start, and it was only a few things that hindered him and prevented from scoring his first points of his Formula 1 career.
He ended just over six seconds away from Valtteri Bottas in tenth, and although disappointed not to bring home what would have been AlphaTauri’s fourth top ten finish of the season, he was pleased to be feeling more comfortable behind the wheel of the AT04.
“A couple of things went wrong today, we need to look into the start, as I could have done a better job, and that’s where we lost the chance,” said Lawson. “The pace wasn’t too bad then, but the race slightly got away from us.
“I’m still learning the procedures and definitely starting to feel more comfortable in the car, but I’m just a little bit disappointed with my race, as I think we may have had the pace for points today.
“I’m not sure though, so we need to look into it. These races are longer than I’m used to, so definitely adjusting, but I felt much more prepared than I did last weekend, so I’m happy about that.”
