Liam Lawson makes 'really loose' claim behind qualifying frustration

Liam Lawson has shared details of a peculiar issue that he feels denied him a higher starting position on the São Paulo Grand Prix grid.

Lawson ended qualifying in seventh place, two positions behind team-mate Isack Hadjar on a strong day for Racing Bulls.

The positive result comes in the same session that its sister Red Bull team suffered its first double Q1 elimination in 19 years.

Reflecting on his session, Lawson detailed he ran into trouble at Turn 1 on his final attempt, a concern that did not exist during the rest of qualifying.

“It’s a great result for the team,” Lawson told media including RacingNews365. “When it's this close, though, you're going to analyse all the details.

“We had a really loose car in Turn 1, which honestly only started on the last lap.

“It’s something that we hadn't really had during qualifying.

“So it's very frustrating. We lost a good chunk of lap time there and it's cost us quite a few positions.

“But for the team, it's a great result to have two cars in Q3.”

Lawson ended the day on a positive note, having clashed with Oliver Bearman during the sprint race, which inflicted damage on his car.

The New Zealander suggested he is somewhat blind when it comes to race pace due to his incident with Bearman.

“It's going to be tough, for sure,” Lawson said, looking ahead to the race.

“We don't really have much of a read on our race car because of today. It's hard to know.”