Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson’s Aggressive Approach at 2023 F1 Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying

2023-09-23 11:19:39

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson finished qualifying for the 2023 F1 Round 17 Japanese Grand Prix in 11th place. Although he missed out on making it to Q3, he supported the team’s aggressive approach. Lawson passed Q1 in 4th place, but he had installed three sets of new software, and was at a disadvantage in Q2. Still, he was 11th, 0.043 seconds behind Fernando Alonso, who passed Q3 in 10th.

“In Q1 I used three sets and had a strong car, but in Q2 I only used one set,” Lawson said. “Looking back, I think in hindsight it was a great thing. Hiroki (Kakuta) did a great job of getting to Q3. “I think we definitely had the potential to do it and now we can do it. I know that, but given the information we had, I think we made the right decision.” “But of course if we were going to miss out by such a wide margin, I would have liked another set of tires.”Q1 Lawson was unable to reach his full potential in the second half of the session as he used an extra tire. Regarding the impact of not being able to put in a second set of tires in Q2, Lawson replied, “It was a natural progression.” “In Q1 we’ve been improving our times every time, and in Q2 we only had one new set of tires. “Obviously from Q1 we’re going to keep finding time every time, and in Q2 obviously we only had one new set, but “Even with one more set, I don’t think there were many places where I might have found time.” “Even though I lost by such a close margin, I think I was definitely able to find a tenth of a second.” Having previously competed in Formula, Lawson knows this circuit inside and out. That allowed me to focus more quickly on improving the car’s performance than learning the track this weekend. “It’s definitely an advantage for me, but it’s still a big buildup,” Lawson said. “It was a learning experience because we were driving a completely different car, but I think it definitely helped us and hopefully we can have a strong race tomorrow as well.” It’s a shame that I mightn’t make it.I didn’t get a solid response from free practice, so I decided to use the tires aggressively in Q1 and leave only one set of new soft tires for Q2.To be honest, I didn’t have much confidence before qualifying, so I think it was the right strategy. Tsunoda was able to advance to Q3, so I’m glad. Now it’s important to make the most of tomorrow’s race. It’s going to be a long race that will be tough on the tires. The conditions are the same for everyone. I want to focus on running to the best of my ability and have a good race with Tsunoda.”

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