Liam Lawson, Red Bull (P12) 3/10
Lawson can complain all he wants about poor tyre preparation and anything else, but qualifying a Red Bull in plum last on two separate occasions is inexcusable. The rookies aren’t having such issues, why are you? The New Zealander made a few overtakes in both races, but seemed to have no idea how to stop his tyres from falling off a cliff in terms of degradation. He just couldn’t seem to make any inroads on slower cars ahead of him, and he’s in a Red Bull. It’s no wonder that there are whispers that he could be replaced with Tsunoda before the Japanese Grand Prix.
Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls (P11) 8/10
Using his bitter disappointment from the Australian Grand Prix as fuel, Hadjar put in a stellar weekend-long performance at the Shanghai International Circuit. Putting a Racing Bulls into the final part of Qualifying as a rookie on your second ever attempt is to be highly commended, as he even outqualified the impressive Tsunoda. Racing Bulls need to sort out their race strategies though, as Hadjar lost out twice with subpar decisions by the pit crew. Pitting for a second time on lap 34 was the real killer though, as Hadjar couldn’t make up the places lost in time to climb back into the points, with a frustrating end to the race stuck behind Doohan putting a damper on an otherwise great weekend for the young Frenchman.
