Liam Lawson puzzled by strange Racing Bulls Zandvoort failure

Liam Lawson has explained his befuddlement at a surprise failure which affected his Racing Bulls machine during Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.

Lawson ended up eighth on the grid at Zandvoort, just behind Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari, with team-mate Isack Hadjar starring with fourth place.

Usually, as drivers progress through each qualifying segment, their lap-time improves, which was the case for Lawson as he posted a 1:09.779 in Q1 and a 1:09.383 in Q2.

However, in Q3, he was slower than in Q2, with a 1:09.500. The same happened to Charles Leclerc, Hamilton, Lawson, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, who rounded out the top 10. 

It was something that Lawson was puzzled with. 

"It was very promising until Q3, and we went slower in Q3, which is what knocked us back, so it is frustrating as I was feeling very good up until that point," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365. 

"You're trying to place the car in the right place, and expecting what the track is going to do, and it is hard to do that sometimes, so we missed out today. 

"You can get unlucky with the wind gusts, and the tyres are very sensitive as well, and having the right balance makes a difference.

"So it is a bit puzzling with the natural progression because we dropped a couple of tenths in Q3, but to have a car on the second row is better than we were expecting, so it is nice to drive a quick car. 

"There have been some teams quite up and down, but we're just consistently good, and we want to try and make another step, which it seems we've done."