Liam Lawson devises plan to avoid 'illegal' Austrian GP qualifying

Liam Lawson has explained how he intends to avoid straying into an "illegal" Austrian Grand Prix qualifying session. Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring is usually close owing to the short lap time, at just over a minute, with cars often backing up in the fast final sector trying to prepare for a flying lap, and inadvertently getting in the way of other drivers already completing one. Lawson finished the two Friday sessions in 15th, and 12th, respectively and felt the tight gaps in the field would make navigating qualifying tricky. "Obviously, we don't intend on getting in people's way, we're trying to manage tyre temperatures and out-lap procedures," Lawson explained. "We follow a delta as well to not be illegal, and around this track, it is always very, very tight, so it will happen, and we've just to to try and manage it the best we can.  "It is close, the track is short and close lap times here, in a season that has been really, really close in general, so qualifying is going to be very, very tight.  "But for us, the car is decent and we need to keep improving it, but we are in an okay window and it feels like we have a little bit of time to find.  "[Lance] Stroll was extremely fast, so the Aston Martins look good, and the Alpines were good in FP1 and the same with Williams. It is just very close."