Liam Lawson never had a chance to qualify well up the grid for the United States Grand Prix due to his grid penalty for a power unit change.
However, in the first of his six races as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement at RB, he gave an immediate sign Red Bull may have made a wise decision by bringing him in.Lawson produced a superb lap time in Q1 which stood as RB’s quickest time of the day – and, barring an unusual development in the grand prix – the weekend. He set a 1’33.339 which was quicker than team mate Yuki Tsunoda managed.
Had Lawson set that time in Q2, and he did not attempt to set a time in that session because of his penalty, he would have reached the final round of qualifying. This is especially galling for Tsunoda, as RB pressed Lawson into service on his behalf, giving him a slipstream on the straight, to no avail.
“Liam delivered a fantastic Q1 with his best lap time being good enough to make Q3,” said technical director Jody Egginton. “But with his PU penalty meaning he will start from the back, it was decided to use him to help Yuki in Q2 which together with his engineer he managed to achieve very well indeed across the two runs in Q2.”
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Lawson showed RB had the pace to beat Haas. The VF-24 drivers had a strong day on Saturday, scoring enough points in the sprint race to draw level with their rivals on points (and ahead of them in the standings by dint of Nico Hulkenberg’s superior race finishes).
So, despite Kevin Magnussen lining up ninth quickest for Haas, the team only actually out-paced two of their rivals in qualifying. Nonetheless their upgrade clearly paid off.
The same is true of Alpine. Pierre Gasly had the only example of their new hardware, and used it to take a superb seventh on the grid.
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“I’m very happy,” he admitted afterwards. “It’s been quite a long time since we made it to Q3 and I must say it was very enjoyable driving the car.
“We made quite a lot of changes after the sprint, still exploring this new package, and there were directions that we wanted to explore. And I think clearly there was a big step in terms of control and potential. It was just so much nicer to drive and I think quite surprising to have found that much performance. But it’s definitely encouraging for the future.”
McLaren set the outright pace once again this weekend, but it should have been Red Bull on top of the times sheets. Max Verstappen’s sector times show he was quick enough to take pole position, and likely would have done had he completed the lap he was on when George Russell crashed.
Lando Norris snatched his opportunity to take pole position partly through being one of few drivers to set his three best sector times on the same lap. The next-quickest driver to do so was Lawson.
Sector times
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 24.82 (1) | 36.986 (3) | 30.507 (4) | 1’32.313 (+0.048) |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 24.992 (3) | 36.887 (1) | 30.451 (1) | 1’32.330 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 24.971 (2) | 36.984 (2) | 30.501 (3) | 1’32.456 (+0.196) |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 25.095 (7) | 37.055 (6) | 30.463 (2) | 1’32.613 (+0.127) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 25.078 (6) | 37.028 (4) | 30.687 (9) | 1’32.793 (+0.181) |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 25.065 (4) | 37.217 (9) | 30.531 (5) | 1’32.813 (+0.205) |
| 7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 25.25 (12) | 37.048 (5) | 30.606 (7) | 1’32.904 (+0.046) |
| 8 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 25.071 (5) | 37.135 (7) | 30.757 (11) | 1’32.963 (+0.057) |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | 25.177 (9) | 37.229 (10) | 30.697 (10) | 1’33.103 (+0.371) |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 25.343 (15) | 37.215 (8) | 30.564 (6) | 1’33.122 (+0.422) |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 25.261 (13) | 37.286 (12) | 30.683 (8) | 1’33.230 (+0.079) |
| 12 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 25.231 (10) | 37.333 (14) | 30.775 (12) | 1’33.339 |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 25.39 (17) | 37.281 (11) | 30.777 (13) | 1’33.448 (+0.149) |
| 14 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 25.155 (8) | 37.446 (15) | 30.891 (14) | 1’33.492 (+0.014) |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 25.387 (16) | 37.296 (13) | 31.009 (17) | 1’33.692 (+0.067) |
| 16 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 25.249 (11) | 37.72 (19) | 30.998 (16) | 1’33.967 (+0.084) |
| 17 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | 25.517 (19) | 37.591 (17) | 30.954 (15) | 1’34.062 |
| 18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 25.454 (18) | 37.564 (16) | 31.058 (19) | 1’34.076 (+0.076) |
| 19 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 25.267 (14) | 37.811 (20) | 31.076 (20) | 1’34.154 |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 25.531 (20) | 37.663 (18) | 31.034 (18) | 1’34.228 |
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Lap times at the Circuit of the Americas
The extensive resurfacing work at the Circuit of the Americas helped drivers set some of the quickest lap times ever seen at the circuit. Had it not been for Russell’s crash, the five-year-old track record might have fallen.
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2024 United States Grand Prix
- McLaren insist stewards made ‘provable error’ after losing bid for review of Norris’ penalty
- Why McLaren’s focus on Verstappen’s driving failed to overturn Norris’ penalty
- Stewards reject McLaren’s request to review Norris’ United States GP penalty
- McLaren know Norris’ penalty is likely to stand – so what do they hope to gain?
- McLaren request review of Norris’ penalty for off-track pass on Verstappen
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
20th October 2024, 8:45
“Lawson produced a superb lap time in Q1 which stood as RB’s quickest time of the day – and, barring an unusual development in the grand prix – the weekend.”
Raised an eyebrow when I realized the mentioned unusual development would be Norris being on course for the FL point.
Jere (@jerejj)
20th October 2024, 8:58
I doubt the outright track record would’ve been beaten even without Russell’s off, given how relatively little the overall improvement from SHQ to standard qualifying was, no more than 0.513 seconds.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
20th October 2024, 10:49
It doesn’t really matter, does it? He could’ve been knocked out of Q2 anyway.
Nick T.
20th October 2024, 18:39
It means even less considering he used three sets of softs in Q1. Had any of the top drivers tried using even two sets of new tires, he wouldn’t been anywhere close to P3 in Q1.
MichaelN
20th October 2024, 11:23
Interesting that Red Bull and Aston Martin have made such gains compared to last year, as it seems very much like 2023 was more ‘their’ year (even if for AM it was more so in the first half of the season).
Lawson is certainly having a solid return so far, good for him!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th October 2024, 12:27
True, though Aston Martin had a particularly poor weekend at this track last year.
Nick T.
20th October 2024, 18:41
These year-over-year charts are nearly useless just for that reason. AM literally used the round as a correlation test due to their massive issues.
gary
20th October 2024, 12:03
times in q1 are meaningless as long as you get through
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
20th October 2024, 23:32
His time was good enough for 8th place start had he been allowed to repeat it in Q2, Q3.. Thats without track evolution… So he likely would have gone faster still. Tsunoda had help with a tow twice in Q2 and was still 2+ tenths slower than what Liam managed earlier.
Liam just backed up his Qualifying pace with a great 19th>9th race. Looking forward to what he can do with a conventional weekend of 3 practice sessions now.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
20th October 2024, 12:13
It’s like Senna and Hakkinen, on a much smaller scale.
black (@black)
20th October 2024, 12:29
Ok this maybe be a blip and Tsunoda outperfors Lawson over the last 6 races, but it does goes to show that Red Bull has really mismanaged their B team since 2019. Before that time they used to constantly bring talents to F1 and gave them 1-2-3 seasons to prove themselves – sure many times their methods were brutal, but they gave us some great-to-decent drivers over the years (Vettel, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Sainz, Albon, Gasly).
After 2019 their B-team became kinda stagnant… they rehired Kvyat for some reason for 2 seasons, they keep Tsunoda for a record amount of seasons without any sign of promoting him, they brought back Ricciardo because they thought he still got it.
All this time they should be bringing every 2 years the ‘hottest’ talents in F2 and F3 and instead of living in groundhog day. Sure some talents were ‘locked’ in by other teams (like Piastri, Russell, Norris, etc), but as Colapinto showed (a driver in no team’s radar 2 months ago), there are some pretty good drivers hidding in F2 and F3 that the results don’t do them justice. Like for 2025, what’s the point of keeping Perez and Tsunoda in their line up when they could just try bringing alongside Lawson, guys like Colapinto, Bortoleto, Hadjar, or random talents like Red Bull used to do back in the day… how much worse are they going to perform compared to Perez and Tsunoda (who’s not that bad but he clearly has no future driving for the big team)…?
Mayrton
20th October 2024, 12:41
That can hardly be a surprise. Ricciardo and Tsunoda do not belong in an F1 car. I am sure there are plenty of categories where their talent fits in, but it is not F1.
Nick T.
20th October 2024, 18:37
Uh, Yuki outqualified Lawson every single time last year. The only reason he got such a fast lap was that he used THREE sets of new tires in W”Q1. Liam won’t beat Yuki.
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
20th October 2024, 23:50
So Liam beat Yuki already… From 19th on the grid. You could argue some of it was a worse strategy for Tsunoda but the 5s penalty and spin were all on him.
SteveP
20th October 2024, 14:34
Some might say that it was more a case of Red Bull finally correcting the mistake of allowing DR to continue in the RB at the start of the 2024 season.
Harsh? Possibly, six more races will give a better indication of the weight of that.
sim
20th October 2024, 14:37
Doesn’t he have to start the next three races from the back after all the new parts or just this one?
Nick T.
20th October 2024, 19:12
Just this one…