Yuki Tsunoda, RB, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2024

Lawson would have “easily” reached Q3 without team mate Tsunoda’s crash

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In the round-up: Liam Lawson is convinced his team mate’s crash cost him a place in Q3.

In brief

Lawson sure he would have reached Q3

Lawson was eliminated from Q2 in 12th place, just behind his team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who crashed out at the end of the session. That brought out red flags which prevented drivers including Lawson from completing their laps.

Had it not been for Tsunoda’s crash, Lawson is convinced he would have reached Q3. “We had a good first sector, found nearly a tenth,” he told the official F1 channel.

“It was very tight, honestly. I was obviously through into Q2 and looking at the times, it was extremely tight. But all weekend we’ve been building. It was a tidy lap. Having completed the lap we were on, I think we should have easily been through. So it’s frustrating. But it’s one of these things. Obviously we were out at the back, so this is the risk that we run.”

Albon “grateful” for Williams repairs

Alexander Albon thanked his Williams mechanics for the repair work to his car after his practice crash forced him to miss the majority of track time on Friday before he secured ninth on the grid for today’s Mexican Grand Prix.

“First of all, an amazing job from everyone at the team,” Albon said. “I’ve had a bit of damage in the last two weekends and they’ve had a lot of work to do. So I’m very grateful for that. Hopefully we can score some points.”

McLaren’s Ugochukwu takes first FREC win

McLaren junior driver Ugo Ugochukwu claimed his first Formula Regional European Championship race win – his first in any Formula Regional series – in the first race of the weekend at Monza.

Ugochukwu started on pole when qualifying was cancelled on Friday by virtue of setting the fastest time in the pre-event test session. After leading most of the race, Ugochukwu held off series champion Rafael Camara over a final lap restart, taking victory by three tenths of a second over the Ferrari junior driver. Former Ferrari junior James Wharton completed the podium in third.

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Comment of the day

With Christian Horner revealing that Fernando Alonso spoke with him early in the year to see what potential there could be to join Red Bull before re-signing with Aston Martin, BLS notes how Alonso always seems to miss out on possible career-changing team moves…

I know Horner is just causing mischief with the team that “poached” Adrian Newey from him, but for all Alonso’s obvious talents, being in the right team at the right time is a skill that has avoided him.

I can’t believe he’s still around to be honest, 2001 feels a lifetime ago. It is a lifetime ago!
BLS

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Crm, Gwen, Jeff Bird, Golson and Ostrailya!

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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5 comments on “Lawson would have “easily” reached Q3 without team mate Tsunoda’s crash”

  1. I really want Williams to do well but I find Vowles insufferable. I guess his comment is a light hearted joke, perhaps it could be seen as a complement to Alonso. But I just can’t imagine Sir Frank, Ron or Jean Todt ever talking about another driver, who he has no professional relationship or direct rivalry with, so disparagingly. Max is a multiple Champion, wasn’t penalised and it’s a bit low for another team principal to inferior Max deliberately ‘takes people out’.

    Max has made some mistakes, I felt Austria and Hungary were poor. But Texas was on the edge, not over it and it doesn’t serve the sport well to have high profile figures wade in on issues that have nothing to do with them. It seems like a 2021 hangover from Vowles but he’s not a Mercedes engineer anyone, he’s Williams Team Principal.

    1. Yeah, he is a Toto clone and part of the toxicity of ’21. Pity he joined the team head toddlers group. A decade of processional racing during the Mercedes years have made a lot of people forget this used to be a competitive sport with lots of controversy, not an engineers parade. Some still can’t handle that the racing has come back. I know everyone tripped over eachother to give way to the Mercedesses cruising to a 1-2 and since a Brit was winning, there was little objection by the press..(unlike the immediate rants when a non Brit showed some signs of domination after ’21) but these days are indeed over and people like Toto and James still sit around crying because their toys have been taken away.

      1. Mayrton: ” A decade of processional racing during the Mercedes years have made a lot of people forget this used to be a competitive sport”

        Sure it wasn’t the years of Red Bull domination, both before and after Mercedes, or the Ferrari years, or the McLaren years,…. did Mercedes make you forget those too?

        1. Mercedes was more and longer dominating, and UK press didn’t mind it as much. His point stands. They couldn’t take a single year of RB domination, while being silent over several years of Mercedes taking the titles, usually without much fight (when there was fight, it didn’t last for more than half a season at best).
          When Ferrari was at the top, they eventually reshaped the rules completely, just to put them down; and they were even open about it.

  2. Tsunoda essentially out-qualified by luck rather than pure pace.

    Unfortunately, waiting until the Qatar GP with the revised guidelines opens up possibilities for similar defending in both Mexico & Brazil, especially the latter’s T4.

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