Liam Lawson reveals 'a lot of risk' behind rare Madring overtake

Liam Lawson has conceded he had to "take a lot of risk" to complete one of the few overtakes of the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring.

The Red Bull driver finished sixth in Madrid, 86.746s behind race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli, after starting on the hard tyre and running a long first stint.

A virtual safety car worked against him, but Lawson said his weekend had previously been compromised by qualifying. The New Zealander started from eighth on the grid.

Lawson's move on Franco Colapinto, following a change of tyres, was one of the rare passes on a circuit that drew heavy criticism across the weekend from all the drivers.

Organisers have since signalled they are open to layout changes for future editions.

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'Easy for it to go wrong' - Lawson

Speaking after the race, Lawson confirmed he had also been compromised by a virtual safety car, called on lap 15 after the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll had sustained a brake issue, forcing him to park his car in a run-off area.

"We started on the hard, and that sort of forced us to go a bit longer," said Lawson, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365.

"The VSC wasn't ideal, but considering where we started, I think the damage for us was really done in qualifying, so it's a good result.

"But it's so hard to overtake. I had to take a lot of risk with Franco to make that pass, and I barely, honestly, made the corner without doing track limits. It's just hard with the way this track layout is, but it's fun to qualify on, just difficult to race on.

"Looking at other categories as well, it's obviously quite mental. In F2, F3, there were quite a lot of crashes. It's just easy for it to go wrong."