Liam Lawson was on the FIA F3 podium again in Spa but the weekend did not provide everything the 18-year-old New Zealander wanted. Rain interrupted Qualifying and left the Hitech driver with a bit of work to do, then Race 1 pace did not enable him to move forward.
He overcame clutch trouble at the start of Race 2 though and took 3rd. Fellow Red Bull Junior and Hitech teammate Dennis Hauger had a storming drive through the field in Race 1. Jack Doohan also showed great pace while Igor Fraga was unlucky with settings and a puncture.
Lawson hindered by a few issues
“Yesterday, yes well we had something on the car that we shouldn’t I’m afraid. It wasn’t good. That was a tough one and today, I think that the speed was there to possibly win the race but we had a clutch issue at the start. We’ve been having clutch issues for ages but we thought we’d solved it yesterday… then we had another one today so that really set us back.”
“It ruined the whole race really, basically we fell back to 6th or 7th and it was very tough from there. By the time I got through the front guys were gone, I had no chance of catching them.”
“In Quali we only had the one lap, that wasn’t ideal and it was on a tyre that had already done a lap. We had traffic and that but it could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure. At least we did get that lap in.”
“I think that we could have had a very strong weekend had we not had the issues in Race 1. We needed to get on top of these things and we still haven’t done that properly, it’s not helping us. So we’ve got to look forward to getting it all right in Monza,” added Lawson.
Hauger with a great Race 1 drive
“Free Practice was not too bad, I think we were P2 and we still had a bit more to go,” explained the 17-year-old Norwegian. “Then Qualifying was quite messy and we only had 1 push lap. And the lap I got was track limit exceeded, the front was OK but the rear snapped and triggered the track limit sensor. Due to that it deleted the lap and instead of starting P12 I think it was, I had to start last.”
“But in pure pace in Qualifying I think it was a lot better, just 2 or 3 tenths from Liam. And there were some small things to work on but technique wise I think it’s good. So the pure pace in Quali was better and I think that was the main thing I had to improve.”
“Race 1 I had to start last and ended up P15 which I think was quite good, the car felt nice and I had some really nice moves and moments so I really enjoyed that race.”
“Going into Race 2 I was expecting to move forward again and get into the points because on Saturday the pace was so much better than the guys is front, especially at the end of the race.”
“Today though, we just didn’t really have grip at all, we struggled a lot and I couldn’t push as much as I did yesterday. That was something that Liam struggled with in Race 1, I had that today, even worse, though we tried to help it.”
“It’s a bit of a shame, it’s a mix of quite a few things and we’ll look more into it.”
“I got up a few positions in the beginning but after a few laps I could feel that the tyres were not really working with me and didn’t have the grip to push further up. A bit of a shame as I was really hoping to get right up there with the pace we had yesterday.”
“Just have to keep my eyes forward, focused on Monza and I think that the pure pace in Qualifying and Race 1 is something we can take from here and carry forward. I think we did a decent job.”
Doohan had the pace for some good results
“Yes, I think we’ve got to take the positives out of the weekend,” said the 17-year-old Australian. “Fastest in the Free Practice and while we were one of about the third of the cars that ran new tyres our gap to the others on the new tyres was quite large so it was pretty good. Our pace was quite good on one lap.”
“Then in Qualifying, I wanted to stay out of trouble, find some space and I thought I did an awesome lap but when we looked at the time I was losing 1.4 seconds in Sector 1 and Sector 3 so there wasn’t much I could do there. That was to a car that didn’t even have a slipstream so it was a bit frustrating.”
“I had the banker lap in so after the Red Flag I went out to try and get a slipstream to see if that would help. But then with the backing up a car misjudged just how much room to leave and ended up passing me through Eau Rouge which is not ideal when this is qualifying not racing so I passed him back at Les Combes.”
“We changed to new tyres and then the rain came out and that was it. I did my lap on my own, Jake (Hughes) did his lap alone and there was half-a-tenth between us and he’s been on the pace so there was not much it in it.”
“Race 1 I
managed to get up into reverse grid pole (10) but then had a VSC issue,
it seemed to happen to a few people, my delta kept changing, I was 0.4
before the VSC then 1.7 seconds after the VSC. It seems like there was a
lack of signal around the track and I had to slow down because it
would tell me I was negative for long periods of time.”
“Then the track went green and I’d lost the DRS. The cars behind had DRS
and I got passed unfortunately, lost 2 spots. I think because of the
VSC issue I was too slow and lost temp in the tyres, I think I cold
grained them. A shame because we had the pace to be further up.”
“Today I got a good start, managed to get up a position or two maybe. Then I lost one, then coming into the bus stop I saw a car behind making a big lunge. I thought I had better give them room, moved over and as I turned in I got a tap in the rear and got a puncture. Nannini apologised to me after the race, saying that he got pushed into me.”
“Very unfortunate because yesterday if we didn’t have the VSC issue and today again we were in the mix for points, it could have all ended up very differently. A bit of bad luck and I hope we can turn that around at Monza,” concluded the HWA driver.
Fraga with a few issues
“Of course the track is really nice to drive but regarding the result…. It’s a bit tough to have things like this. We try to keep pushing to the end,” stated the 21-year-old Brazilian.
“In the Free Practice we were not so bad but again there were not so many cars on the new tyres,” explained the Charouz driver.
“In Quali it was really tough because a lot happened. First lap there
was a Red Flag. Only 9 or 10 cars were able to finish the lap when the
tyre performance was better. Then on the second lap it was really a mess
let’s say. It was hard to find my position then at the end of Sectors 2
and 3 I was held up by cars in front and I couldn’t maximise the lap
and we ended up 18th.”
“In Race 1 we had a problem with the car balance and we really struggled
with the front and towards the end I started to drop down the places
lap by lap.”
“Then today I had a good start and was making some positions but then had a puncture on my front right. We needed to box, change tyre and then just do the last 2 laps. It was strange, I didn’t hit any debris and up to then the tyre was fine, a bit weird.”
#5 Liam Lawson (NZL – Hitech Mecachrome Dallara)
Qualifying: 7th – Race 1 Grid: 7th – Race 1 Result: 9th
Race 2 Grid top 10 in reverse order: 2nd – Race 2 Result: 3rd
FIA F3 Championship position: 4th – 111 points – after 14 races
#6 Dennis Hauger (NOR – Hitech Mecachrome Dallara)
Qualifying: NT – Race 1 Grid: 28th – Race 1 Result: 15th
Race 2 Grid top 10 in reverse order: 15th – Race 2 Result: 18th
FIA F3 Championship position: 16th – 14 points – after 14 races
#16 Jack Doohan (AUS – HWA Mecachrome Dallara)
Qualifying: 13th – Race 1 Grid: 13th – Race 1 Result: 12th
Race 2 Grid top 10 in reverse order: 12th – Race 2 Result: DNF (Incident)
FIA F3 Championship position: 25th – 0 points – after 14 races
#24 Igor Fraga (BRA – Charouz Mecachrome Dallara)
Qualifying: 18th – Race 1 Grid: 18th – Race 1 Result: 19th
Race 2 Grid top 10 in reverse order: 19th – Race 2 Result: 27th
FIA F3 Championship position: 21st – 1 point – after 14 races
Comments