Liam Lawson puzzled by 'first-ever' failure after Racing Bulls experiment

Liam Lawson has explained how a failed Racing Bulls experiment left him puzzled after a "first-time" failure on Pirelli's new C6 tyre.

Lawson qualified 19th fastest in Montreal, but will start 18th following Yuki Tsunoda's 10-place grid penalty. but it was his worst showing, 20th in China, when he was driving for Red Bull. 

The New Zealander explained how Racing Bulls tried a different tyre strategy, which failed with his inability to unlock performance on the new C6 tyres, which was a first-time occurrence.

"We've been struggling to make the tyre work on the first lap, so to start Q1, we did a build lap to try and put them in the right window," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Once you commit to it, it is kind of hard to pull out of it, so we tried to make it work, but it just didn't and we didn't have an increase in grip. 

"It is just getting them up [to temperature], and it is quite a short lap, so it's a combination of both. 

"You have a build lap, it gives a bit more time to get them into the right window, but it is not ideal for one-lap performance, so we tried to avoid it, but I don't know why it didn't work. 

"We've been trying to make the C6 work, and honestly, I felt pretty comfortable on it, and this is the first time it hasn't worked for us, or at least on my side. 

"[The race] is going to be hard from where we are starting, so we'll have to do something quite special."