Liam Lawson is keen to go racing again at the next two rounds in the latest triple header after securing another points finish at the United States Grand Prix, with the New Zealander feeling in a “good place” following his P9 result.
After lining up as ‘best of the rest’ in ninth place on the grid – behind the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren drivers – Lawson put in a solid drive to bring his Racing Bulls machine home in the same position.
The 24-year-old spoke highly of how the team had performed across the event at the Circuit of The Americas, with his result boosting the squad’s tally as their hold on P5 in the Teams’ Championship strengthens.
“When everyone finishes, for us it’s a P9 or a P10 – that’s sort of the best we can do,” said Lawson. “Honestly we executed really well today – we had a great race, so couldn’t really do more. Overall it’s been a strong weekend.”
When pushed on how encouraging it is for him personally to see his consistent run continue, Lawson responded: “I mean honestly, yeah. I feel good. I felt good all weekend. I’m enjoying driving this car, honestly – it’s in a great place at the moment, so I’m excited to go to some more sort of unique tracks now.
“Obviously with Mexico [it’s] very high altitude, and Brazil [is] probably going to be quite bumpy I’m guessing. But yeah, we’re in a good place.”
On the other side of the garage, Arvid Lindblad was faced with a more challenging afternoon on Sunday after a five-place grid penalty for using additional power unit elements dropped him down to P14.
He ultimately went on to cross the line in 12th place, leaving him unsure about how to summarise his race.
“It was okay,” the Briton reflected afterwards. “Lap 1 wasn’t as good as I’d hoped – obviously I went down the inside, but we all kind of stacked up on top of each other so I wasn’t really able to make any ground there.
“And then it was a bit difficult, the first stint, and then the second two stints I think were okay, but obviously I boxed quite early onto the medium [tyre]. I was feeling good for a few laps – I was catching Franco [Colapinto], and then I was basically in Pierre [Gasly’s] undercut window so then he held me up. I lost about two seconds in half a lap with him.
“Then I tried to get Pierre and probably pushed a bit too hard, but yeah, it is what it is. I’m not really sure honestly how to reflect on the race. For half of it I didn’t really know where I was or what was going on.
“I think I was the only one who tried to do the two-stop – I don’t think that worked. It is what it is. I think there were positives, so we’ll learn from it, and yeah, big thanks to the team anyway.”
Despite this, Lindblad was pleased to have felt better in the car than at earlier points of the weekend.
“I didn’t feel very comfortable going into [it] through most of the practices, but then I felt okay in Quali,” he explained. “Honestly, I felt pretty good in the race as well – probably one of the best feelings I’ve had in the race so far this year.”
