Liam Lawson voices F1 relief: 'We just survived'

Liam Lawson has admitted he “just survived” on his way to a points finish in Canada after enduring an extremely difficult race weekend in Montreal.

Lawson’s troubles began early in the weekend when a technical issue during practice restricted him to just five laps of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of sprint qualifying.

The problem could not be resolved in time for the session, forcing the Racing Bulls driver to sit out sprint qualifying entirely and enter Saturday’s sprint race with minimal mileage under his belt.

“Honestly, it's been a crazy weekend,” Lawson reflected, speaking to F1. 

“I've never had that where I've missed an entire day. Obviously, the teams are very, very good at rebuilding cars.

“But the issue we had was severe, and also here [in Canada] you can't recover the car during the session. 

“So it put us out for Friday, and I tried to prepare for quali, but it was honestly harder than I expected.”

Lawson narrowly missed out on a spot inside the top 10 for the start of Sunday's grand prix.

However, as various drivers around him retired, Lawson was vaulted into the top 10 and managed to fend of Pierre Gasly to match his best result of the season,

“We put the car nearly in Q3, but missed out, and then [on Sunday], we just survived,” he said. 

“A lot of guys retired, and we survived.”