Liam Lawson highlights 'crazy' factor in Spa sprint qualifying frustration

Liam Lawson labelled the small margins around Spa-Francorchamps as “crazy” after suffering an early exit from sprint qualifying. Lawson ended the second segment of the outing in 11th place, 0.041s down on Oscar Piastri ahead of him in 10th. The New Zealander is confident he could have progressed into the final stage if not for a minor mistake in the final corner. “I’m a little bit frustrated,” Lawson said. “It’s just small margins, which is crazy around here because it’s such a long lap. “The car has been fast, I was on a lap that was probably plenty good enough but I had a small issue in the last chicane. “It’s just tiny things that make a difference, so it’s knocked us out.” While he was left disappointed with his result, Lawson is still in contention for points in the shorter sprint race, which pays out to the top eight finishers. After the race, the cars are allowed to undergo changes ahead of qualifying for the grand prix, which Lawson sees as an opportunity to improve on his Friday result. “It depends on our race pace obviously but we’ll take the learnings from today and apply to qualifying tomorrow,” he said. “Like every other weekend, it’s just extracting every little bit out of the car. The wind changes makes quite a big difference, as it did at Silverstone. “It’s sensitive stuff, trying to maximise stuff, for us as well as drivers, trying to put everything together. Normally when you do that, it’s enough to go through.”