Hadjar left with mixed feelings despite ‘perfect’ weekend in Vegas as Lawson apologises for ‘mistake’
Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson reflect on their respective races in Las Vegas.
Racing Bulls left Las Vegas with more points in the bag courtesy of Isack Hadjar, who finished sixth after another strong drive for the team. But Liam Lawson did not manage to score, after making contact with Oscar Piastri at the start and being forced to pit with front wing damage.
With both cars starting solidly in the top 10, hopes were high of a good race and certainly that was delivered on Hadjar’s side of the garage. The Frenchman started on the medium tyres and moved to the hards, and while he could not chase down Carlos Sainz he was able to hold the likes of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton at bay.
But he rued a lack of understanding with the tyres, that might have cost him the chance of doing even better.
“I’m a bit disappointed with the pace we had,” Hadjar explained. “So far this weekend, over one lap we were more competitive. But we obviously hadn’t done any long run simulations and to be fair, I feel we managed a little bit too much.
“We expected more graining, but in the end it was a full-push race and we couldn’t really catch up with the Williams. But compared to the other cars, it is still pretty decent, so I take the [P6].”
Racing Bulls remain some way behind Williams in the Teams' Championship, but they are 17 points ahead of Haas in the fight for P6 with just two races to go.
“Honestly, I think as a team and myself, it’s probably been our best weekend as there’s been no mistakes since FP1 to the last lap of the race. We ticked every box so it is a perfect weekend,” Hadjar concluded.
But the same could not be said for Lawson, who out-qualified his team mate. He looked to brake too late coming into Turn 1, making contact with the McLaren of Piastri and damaging his front wing. Limping round with the damage for an extra lap cost him hugely, and when he finally pitted, the Kiwi racer found himself last.
That ended any chance he had of scoring points, as he continues to fight for his F1 future – the only positive being the fact that his Red Bull rival Yuki Tsunoda also failed to score in Las Vegas. Lawson eventually came home 14th.
“I just made a mistake, didn’t expect the field to check up so much at Turn 1. It wasn’t my intention, I wasn’t even trying to overtake, yeah, just went in deep and unfortunately made contact with Oscar,” Lawson said, quick to take accountability for his error.
“Big apologies to the team obviously. We did a good job yesterday, had two cars starting in the points and we should have had two cars finish in the points. It’s a shame.”
Lawson could at least take heart from the pace the car had in Qualifying, as he seeks that standout performance that might earn him a seat on the grid next year.
“It was a great Quali, we had a quick car. It’s just more frustrating when you have a quick car and you don’t convert in a race, especially at this point in the season,” he concluded.
