Liam Lawson cites Racing Bulls issue after 'accidental overtakes'

Liam Lawson has described how his Racing Bulls car was being "accidentally overtaken" by F1 rivals in the Belgian Grand Prix. 

Lawson started ninth and ran as high as sixth on the opening lap at Spa, but fell away to 12th in the final results to bring to an end his run of successive points finishes, although team-mate Arvid Lindblad did take ninth. 

With energy management a topic of major concern for teams, different strategies emerged, with Racing Bulls opting to save energy from La Source and up Eau Rouge and Raidillon, which created the opportunity for other cars to "accidentally" overtake Lawson. 

The New Zealander also hinted at power unit issues with his RBPT-Ford engine on a day Racing Bulls drew level with Alpine for fifth in the constructors' on 61 points.

"We were way too slow, all race, and it was apparent pretty quickly as well," Lawson reflected to media, including RacingNews365. 

"We had some issues with the PU and trying to optimise it, but with a track like this, you have no idea, there is so much lap-time in where you are using your energy. The first stint wasn't too bad, but from there, after the pit stop, it was just slow. 

"We were trying to save energy through Eau Rouge down towards Turn 5 - Les Combes -, but we were losing so much time that people were accidentally overtaking me because we had no energy down to Turn 1, so we were trying lots of different things in the race, but it wasn't really working. 

"I did have quite a bit of contact in the race, but not much from the first lap, and then I went off again after the pit-stop, fighting at Turn 5, but I think we also had power issues in the race."