Max Verstappen will line up second on the grid behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton having narrowly missed out, but new team-mate Liam Lawson continues to struggle since his Red Bull promotion
Liam Lawson admitted a personal failure after qualifying dead last for the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race. It was another disappointing result which followed on from his Q1 exit in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix the previous weekend, before he crashed out of that race.
Lawson is already under pressure to perform after he was promoted to the main Red Bull squad over the winter. That decision was made after team principal Christian Horner decided to let Sergio Perez go after a wretched 2024 campaign.
The Red Bull chief was faced with a choice of drivers to replace the Mexican. However, he overlooked Yuki Tsunoda and his four years of Formula 1 experience to give the nod instead to Lawson, who had started just 11 races in the sport prior to this new campaign.
But his problems in Melbourne last weekend and now this disappointment in qualifying for the Shanghai Sprint will only pile further pressure on the Kiwi. And his disappointment was obvious as he faced the TV cameras after going slower than everyone else in Friday’s Sprint qualifying session.
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He said: “Just the second lap, I went off. It’s obviously a shame. From a starting point it wasn’t too bad – the first lap was alright and then we were looking to build on that. But we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track and, to be honest, I really struggled to get the temps down to start the second lap.
“So basically we started with the tyres too hot and then I just struggled. It’s frustrating. Small things, it’s really a shame because we started okay in quali. The first lap was relatively okay, it’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating.
“Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are. We have tomorrow’s Sprint race to try to learn some things, and tomorrow’s quali as well. We want to do a better job than this.”
In contrast, Max Verstappen was left pleasantly surprised after finishing the same qualifying session second on the timesheets. He was just 18-hundredths of a second slower than Lewis Hamilton who was even more shocked to find himself in pole position in his Ferrari.
Speaking afterwards, Verstappen admitted he had not expected to make it as high up the order as he did. He said: “The lap was very good. It’s always very tough, when you go from a medium [tyre] to a soft, to nail the lap with no references.
“Of course when you look at it, it was 18 thousandths or something off pole, but I don’t think we should have even been on the front row anyway. I’m very happy to be second.”
