Liam Lawson identified his "botched starts" as a room for improvement after scoring his first Formula 1 points in the Singapore Grand Prix with ninth place. The AlphaTauri was the highest-placed Red Bull car throughout the race before a late charge from Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez put them ahead in the order, although the Kiwi held on to ninth to bank two points. It is the best finish any of the four AlphaTauri drivers have managed all season. At his third race, Lawson found it tough but managed to hang on after sensationally qualifying in the top ten on Saturday, knocking Verstappen out in Q2 as he did so. "This place is extremely tough on the body, especially when you're fighting the car a lot," he told media, including RacingNews365 . "It makes it that that extra difficult, but I'm happy to survive the race." Lawson lost two positions at the start to Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, something he hopes to work on for the future. "For me it's the start I need to get on top of because it's now two weekends in a row that I've botched the start and lost a couple of positions," he explained. "It's just making our life more difficult."
Perez and Albon fight kept P10 alive
With Pierre Gasly finishing in sixth and Oscar Piastri in seventh after both started outside the top ten, there was potentially more on offer for AlphaTauri. But Lawson was satisfied they made the most out of their strategy, having pitted him once during the early Safety Car period. "I think we extracted everything out of the car. We didn't quite have the race pace," he said. "We felt going into the race it was going be a little bit difficult because we felt this on Friday as well. We tried to correct it as much as we could, and we maximised it." The fight between Sergio Perez and Alexander Albon in the closing stages of the race enabled Lawson to stay ahead of Kevin Magnussen, who was just 6.1 seconds behind at the chequered flag. "I guess when Checo [Perez] and [Alex] Albon had their fight and one went back, that was when I felt a bit more comfortable that like we could be at least P10," said Lawson. "Not a bonus to see somebody crash out with George [Russell], but for us it means we get an extra point."
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