Lawson reveals how F1 debut nod was delivered

Liam Lawson has revealed how he found out he would be driving for AlphaTauri at the Dutch Grand Prix following Daniel Ricciardo’s practice crash.

Ricciardo suffered a broken metacarpal in his left hand during Friday’s second practice session and was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the weekend.

Lawson, who is Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s reserve driver this year, was called up in his place to make his F1 debut.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365.com, the New Zealander explained: “It was all very quick.

"I was in the Red Bull garage watching the session and the crash, it was just a freak accident - it wasn't a big crash or anything like that, just the way the steering wheel clipped around.

“It's never something you want to see, so firstly I felt for for Daniel but I had the news that he'd hurt his hands.

“So we went to the driver's briefing as a sort of precaution and then it was midway through the driver's briefing, I got the message.”

Lawson hunting clean race for debut

Lawson took to the track for the first time this year in wet conditions at the start of FP3 in order to get up to speed.

In the latter stages of the session, he hit the wall at the penultimate corner after spinning but managed to bring the car back to the pit lane.

The Super Formula challenger then qualified in 20th position but insists that the session was primarily focused on getting comfortable behind the wheel.

“It was ok,” Lawson reflected.

“To be honest, with how the first set of tyres was going, I was actually feeling pretty comfortable.

“The morning was really tough. I think the first run [in qualifying], we weren't too far off and, you know, still improving.

“Then the second set, it rained again and I expected it to get a bit slower but obviously, getting used to these Inter tyres in these conditions.

"If it's dry [for the race], I have got to relearn everything again, I haven’t driven in the dry so it's going to be a very tough race but I'm excited at the same time.

“I know, it's going to be challenging and I know we have a lot to get through. So I think we're just after a clean race.”