Lawson rues missed qualifying opportunity

AlphaTauri driver Liam Lawson has conceded he was disappointed not to advance into Q3 during his second qualifying session in Formula 1.

Having been called up to replace an injured Daniel Ricciardo at Zandvoort, Lawson has kept the drive while the Australian continues his recovery from a broken metacarpal.

The Faenza-based outfit displayed much-improved pace throughout qualifying, with Lawson and teammate Yuki Tsunoda advancing into Q2.

The duo almost made it into the final segment but had to settle for 11th and 12th respectively, with Tsunoda heading his rookie teammate.

“It was a decent session,” Lawson told media including RacingNews365.com.

“But I think we definitely have more time in it, with both cars so close to Q3, there was obviously clearly potential to be in there.

“So I'm a little bit disappointed, but happy with the step we made, just still a little more to come.”

Lawson distracted by gravel

Lawson's best effort in Q2, which was set on the Medium tyres as mandated by the weekend's Alternative Tyre Allocation trial regulations, was less than two-tenths slower than Tsunoda's.

He has also been faced with a steep learning curve with the Pirelli rubber, with the differing grip between compounds and fresh tyres pivotal to setting optimum times.

The New Zealander revealed: “I had a car go off in front of me and drop gravel all over the track.

“So that definitely didn’t help.

"With both cars so close, we definitely had the potential.

“You can feel it, it’s little things like knowing how much the step up in grip is going to be from compound to compound that you just have to feel first before you can know where to use the extra grip or whatever.”