Lawson laments ‘pretty tough’ end to AlphaTauri stint

F1 rookie Liam Lawson hoped to conclude his cameo with AlphaTauri on a high, but instead it was a “pretty tough” end for the young gun in Qatar.

Lawson crossed the checkered flag in 17th position as the final driver in the pecking order after running at the tail end of the field all evening, struggling for grip.

The 21-year-old, who spun out of F1’s sprint event on Saturday, left Qatar with few positives to take away from what was likely his final outing with AlphaTauri, as Daniel Ricciardo is expected to return to active duty at the US Grand Prix in Austin next week.

“We had a good start next to Stroll and [he] just didn’t really see me, so swiped across the front of me,” Lawson explained.

“And then I lost like two more spots, so it was obviously pretty frustrating there.

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“Obviously you want to go out on a high, so this is pretty tough to finish off on. It’s just something really to look into.

“Obviously the first couple of races went really good, we were building up, and then this weekend I think we just struggled.”

And the struggles were present on both sides of the AlphaTauri garage, with Lawson’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda concluding his day a lowly P15.

However, Lawson’s task was further complicated by his complete lack of knowledge of Luszil, having never visited the venue before last weekend while F1’s sprint format was also a new experience for the Kiwi.

“The Sprint weekend make it extra tough,” he added.

“Yesterday was completely my mistake and then today, obviously there’s definitely things that we’ll look into that I could probably improve on, which I’d like to find out.

“But in general, I think we just didn’t have the speed anyway.”

Lawson will embed with Red Bull Racing next week at The Circuit of the Americas before flying to Japan to take part in the final round of the Super Formula series at Suzuka.

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