Racing Bulls staff principal Laurent Mekies was inspired by what he noticed from Liam Lawson in his second race since returning to the staff final weekend.
On the face of it, the previous Crimson Bull driver suffered a troublesome weekend. Lawson didn’t progress from Q1 when his DRS closed after he backed off to scale back wheelspin on his last lap. He completed the race sixteenth after selecting up two penalties for collisions with rivals.
Nonetheless Mekies mentioned Lawson, who completed forward of staff mate Isack Hadjar earlier than his penalties had been utilized, made clear progress final weekend.
“It could not have confirmed on the time sheet, however he made a really important step ahead in comparison with Japan,” mentioned Mekies. “The tempo is there, increase step-by-step.”
Though Lawson got here away point-less from Sunday’s race, his tempo through the grand prix was encouraging. He received forward of Hadjar at the beginning, regardless of beginning on tougher tyres than his staff mate, then rose to ninth place earlier than pitting.
After working his center stint on laborious tyres Lawson switched to a set of softs when the Security Automotive was deployed. He received forward of Hadjar once more after the Security Automotive interval, then handed Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s broken Williams and Jack Doohan to complete thirteenth on the street. He picked up penalties for making contact throughout his passes on Hulkenberg and Doohan.
Mekies expects to see Lawson “piece all of it collectively” at this weekend’s race in Jeddah. Lawson has beforehand raced on the observe in Method 2.
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Lawson mentioned he “had good pace however simply couldn’t actually use it” in Bahrain. “The one method I may overtake was lunging fairly late. I wasn’t deliberately touching others, however clearly the stewards made their choice with the penalties, so we’ll must overview the incidents.
“It’s a disgrace we don’t have the outcomes to point out us pushing forwards as a staff, because the automobile was actually quick in qualifying and we didn’t get to point out it. The automobile was additionally quick within the race, however there’s clearly solely a lot you are able to do ranging from the again. It was only a race that simply didn’t fairly come collectively.”
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