Liam Lawson 'hurt' by Racing Bulls planning: 'It played too much into our minds'

Liam Lawson has revealed to being "hurt" by Racing Bulls' "conservative" approach to qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix due to a particular scenario it had on its mind.

In an astonishing Q2 at the Yas Marina Circuit, the bottom eight drivers were covered by a remarkable 0.076s, from Oscar Piastri in his McLaren in eighth down to 15th-placed Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin.

Lawson will start 13th after finishing 0.043s off a place in Q3, a situation explained away by the fact the team opted to use three sets of soft tyres in Q1, leaving him running a used set for his second run in Q2.

Questioned on the super-tight margins, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Lawson said: "Ultimately, it was really down to playing it a bit conservative. 

"We took three sets in Q1, and we didn't really need to, I don't think. It's hurt us in the end because we missed Q3 by a very small margin, and we had to run a used tyre in that [Q2] session.

"It's frustrating. Something obviously we'll learn from going into next year, but just one of those things. We had a very quick car. We obviously based a lot of our data from P2 but it was the first run in the car for me yesterday."

That was with reference to the fact Lawson saw out first practice for Ayumu Iwasa and missed vital track understanding, despite the session being less representative compared to FP2.

"You saw the margins," added Lawson. "It's extremely close. It's very easy to fall the wrong side of it, and obviously it's a very important weekend for the constructors', and that probably played into our minds a little bit too much in our planning."

Racing Bulls go into the season decider in sixth position in the constructors' standings, 12 points clear of Aston Martin, and 19 ahead of Haas. Those teams have Fernando Alonso starting sixth and Esteban Ocon in eighth. Lawson's team-mate, Isack Hadjar, lines up ninth.

"We have one car [Hadjar] in the points, and I'm reasonably close to it [the top 10], so we're going to have to try [for points]" said Lawson.

"Our goal is to beat Aston and Haas in the constructors', so it's going to be very much trying to make sure we're on top of them.

"Hopefully we can overtake. It should be a track on which you can overtake. But with how close the margins are, honestly, I expect everyone to be very similar on pace."