Liam Lawson finds silver lining in Spanish 'tyre-killing' concern

Liam Lawson believes two silver linings emerged from a Spanish Grand Prix in which he came within three seconds of scoring points in back-to-back F1 races for the first time in his F1 career.

Lawson had been hoping to build on his eighth place in the Monaco Grand Prix a week previously, his first time in the top 10 of what has been a difficult year for the New Zealander following his swift demotion from Red Bull back to Racing Bulls.

Lawson's hopes were compromised by the fact that he again missed out on a place in Q3, leaving him to start 13th on the grid. In seven races since his return to the team, he has only reached the top-10 shoot-out on one occasion, in Monaco.

Yet, for the most part over the 66 laps at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, Lawson was able to hold his own on pace despite tyre concerns, in tandem with a new front wing on the car. 

Racing director Alan Permane confirmed ahead of practice on Friday that the new wing had been designed 80 per cent to conform to the new regulations designed to limit flexing, and 20 per cent for improved aerodynamic benefit.

Lawson and team-mate Isack Hadjar at least noticed a performance gain from the wing, in contrast to many of their rival drivers, who felt very little improvement.

After a hectic triple-header that commenced in Imola, asked by RacingNews365 for the positives and negatives from the three weekends, Lawson replied: "The positives are the race pace has been really good.

"The race pace [in Spain] was good. We were killing our tyres behind cars, but then still having good speed."

On the flip side, he added: "Qualifying has not been strong enough for us, in general. We missed out in Monaco, and we missed out here [Spain], which has put us in these positions where we're fighting cars that we're faster than."

Lawson hoping for Ricciardo repeat

Concerning the effect of the front wings, Lawson said: "I think these regulations have potentially suited us a little, which is quite cool.

"Obviously, we've only been to one track, so we'll wait and see how they are around the rest."

Next up for Lawson is a circuit around which he has not competed, Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which will prove testing for the 23-year-old.

Lawson naturally concedes he has no idea how he will fare but is at least hoping to emulate the performance of Daniel Ricciardo from last year.

Lawson was on a run of eight races with a top-10 finish to start last year before finally stopping the rot in Canada where he qualified fifth before going on to finish eighth.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Lawson. "The car was strong there last year, especially for Daniel, so we'll see."