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Lawson was well tested on debut: 'That wasn't the best feeling ever'

18:45, 28 Aug 2023

bySam Godber

Liam Lawson suddenly had to fill in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, who broke a metacarpal bone in a crash at Circuit Zandvoort. The New Zealander certainly did not have an easy debut with the hugely changeable conditions.

Lawson makes F1 debut

Lawson qualified last for the race at Circuit Zandvoort, but the Red Bull Racing junior also only had one free practice session to prepare after Ricciardo's retirement. In the end, Lawson finished the Grand Prix in 13th place, ahead of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Speaking to GPblog, the brand-new AlphaTauri driver looks back on his race debut.

"It was a little bit sketchy. Conditions were all over the place. Rolling up to the grid it started raining. Definitely wasn't the best feeling. But throughout the race I was obviously learning a huge amount. The first part wasn't the best. We lost a lot of time with the stacking in the pit stop and the penalty. That's all part of it, obviously. But the second half I think I started to get a better feeling on the softs in the clean air. And then on the inters as well. I felt a lot more comfortable than yesterday, that's for sure."

Lawson battles with Leclerc

Lawson had a fight with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc during the race. The two went wheel-to-wheel several times. "That was quite eventful to be fair. I think he was struggling a lot on the softs. And every time I'd pass him, he'd just pass me back down the straight. So it was a little bit frustrating, but obviously it's good to get experience. I feel like I had experience of every situation in that race. With multiple pit stops, wheel to wheel racing, rain, dry. So it was a good learning experience," Lawson concluded.