Liam Lawson made a solid comeback during the Sprint in Shanghai, moving from thirteenth on the grid to seventh at the finish to score his first points of the season.
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This result comes after a difficult start to the year for Lawson, who failed to score points in the opening round in Melbourne.
The key to this comeback was a strategic decision: starting the 19-lap race on hard tires. This option allowed him to progress steadily through the field before a safety car came out to disrupt the race.
The intervention was triggered when the car of Nico Hulkenberg, entered by Audi, came to a halt on track.
Bold strategy, but it could be costly
During this neutralization, several drivers chose to pit. Lawson, however, stayed on track, which briefly propelled him into the top 5 before finally crossing the finish line in 7th place.
While the strategy proved successful in the short term, it could complicate Racing Bulls’ task for the main race. Indeed, by using this set of hard tires, Lawson now only has one set of C2s left for the Grand Prix.
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Asked about this decision, the New Zealander admits that it could backfire on the team: “Yes, that’s the problem. Now we have one less set of hard tires, and honestly, when we made the decision this morning, we had to think about our pace. Yesterday, we did a good job and that was our level. So we tried to maximize today and take advantage of the opportunity.”
A trickier Grand Prix ?
Lawson admits that the battle for points in Sunday’s Grand Prix will be more difficult: “Tomorrow, it will be complicated for us to fight for points. We need to find more speed, which we are going to try to do this afternoon. But yes, it could penalize us a bit.”
Despite these concerns, the Kiwi believes that the team had little other choice than to attempt this strategic gamble during the Sprint.
“We had a good track position towards the end, so when the safety car came out we didn’t want to give up that advantage, he concludes. It was a bold strategy, but it worked well and we managed to bring home some points. “
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