Shining new F1 star Liam Lawson, born in Hastings NZ, interviewed by Greg "Rusty" Rust, who lives in Havelock North. Photo / Don Kennedy
It has taken 15 races for someone to burst the Red Bull bubble, and Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari did just that with an outstanding drive for an enthralling Singapore Grand Prix victory.
Starting from pole position, Sainz was able to control the race despite being on a one-stop strategy and dealing with a virtual, then safety-car intervention.
He was initially chased by his teammate, Charles Leclerc, and then by Lando Norris, in the McLaren, who headed the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Behind those five, there was an intense midfield battle, which included New Zealander Liam Lawson, having his third start for Alpha Tauri in place of Daniel Ricciardo, who was in the Formula 1 paddock, but whose hand injury from his crash at Zandvoort, has prevented him racing.
Lawson has made no secret of his love for Formula 1 (F1) and burning desire to be a full-time F1 driver next year. Judging by his qualifying performance, in which he knocked world champion Max Verstappen, out of Q3 (the final qualifying session), and his race finish of ninth, to earn his first F1 points, he may well get his wish, but more on that later.
Undoubtedly Sainz was the star driver all weekend, He topped the times in all three practice sessions, took pole, and then went on to win his second Grand Prix, and first of the year, following on from his maiden F1 victory at Silverstone last year.
He has moved solidly into fifth place in the championship and was voted driver of the day. His team opted for an audacious race strategy of just the one-stop, having to make the tyres last and keep the two-stopping Mercedes behind him.
The other one-stopper was Norris, who clung onto the rear of Sainz’s Ferrari as if his life depended on it.
Sainz purposely dropped back to make sure Norris was in DRS range, which helped the latter stay ahead of Russell and Hamilton, something Norris was quick to thank Sainz for after the race, whilst also creating a buffer from the Mercedes duo on fresher tyres. Sainz explained his artful plan in the post-race interviews.
“Given our limitations with tyre wear and degradation, it was all about managing the beginning of each stint to make sure I made it to the target lap that we wanted to do in each compound,” he explained.
“I had to get George slowing down, not to give him a safety car or median tyre opportunity and it worked to perfection. It was just quite tight at the end, but we gave Lando a bit of DRS [drag reduction system] to help him and, in the end, we made it P1 [race leader].”
Despite the close proximity of the first four heading into the concluding laps, Sainz says he felt he had it under control.
“I’m not gonna lie, you’re under pressure and you obviously are very close to making any kind of mistake, but I felt under control,” he added.
“I felt I could manage well, and we brought it home. That was the best feeling you know. I am over the moon right now, " he told the media.
“Yeah, an incredible feeling, an incredible weekend. I want to thank everyone in Ferrari for making this huge effort to turn around and manage to win this season after a tricky beginning, but now we nailed the weekend. We nailed the race.”
For Norris, another second place with that elusive first Grand Prix win literally just a car length or two up the road. But he was able to relish the battle up front.
“Incredible. Carlos, Charles. Lewis, George and I really pushed each other hard all evening,” Norris said.
“The end of the race was very stressful, but it paid off. We knew it was going to be tough as soon as Mercedes boxed, especially with only a couple of cars for them to overtake, but we held them off, did what we needed to do and we’re on the podium with P2 [place 2], so I’m super happy.”
Hamilton joined Norris on the podium, but it should have been Russell, who started ahead of his teammate however Lewis overtook by going off the track at the first corner, eventually giving the place back. With just a few corners to go on the last lap, Russell, with a rush of blood to the head, seemed to try a late overtake on Norris at Turn 10. He clipped the wall instead, and with a cry of anguish over the team car radio, the podium for Russell was gone.
“No words, to be honest,” Russell said.
“Such a long race, physical race, difficult to keep concentration when Carlos was doing a great job backing the pack up, not allowing us to do the alternative strategy.”
“I think we were half a car’s length from winning the race had I got past Lando when I had the opportunity. It’s how racing should be, you make a small mistake here and you’re bitten for it - but it’s heartbreaking after such a great weekend.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff inferred he wasn’t upset with Russell for throwing away 15 points, and said he would take the comforting approach, rather than admonishing his driver.
“It’s just such a shame for George because he worked hard for that. It could have been a good third and fourth, lots of points, but now we lost 22 against Ferrari,” Wolff lamented.
“It was just an unfortunate moment, he clipped the wall and that’s a split-second mistake and it ended a great race, it’s a shame because he would have deserved it.”
He confirmed the comforting approach was what was required.
“Yeah absolutely. The driver you’re devastated in such a moment and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
He took pride though in the team’s aggressive approach to the race.
“It was clear that it was so difficult to win the race if we were just static,” Wolff said. “So we said let’s go for it. We were robust, we went for it and at the end it was a podium for Lewis, that’s great.”
Also adopting an aggressive approach was Red Bull after Verstappen was bumped out of Q3 by Alpha Tauri stand-in, Liam Lawson, who had only experienced the circuit in a simulator.
He qualified 10th, knocking out Verstappen, albeit not for long in the race itself. After getting past Lawson, Verstappen, and Sergio Perez who had qualified 13th after a spin in Q2, stayed out when the Safety-car was deployed, because it was too early for them to pit, leaving Verstappen, second but he had to bear some pain, as a few cars went past. After pitting he redeemed himself and the team to some extent, with a fifth-place finish.
With Perez finishing eighth, he has actually increased his world championship lead, which is now 151 points with seven races to go.
Verstappen was very angry after qualifying, trying to understand how a car that he had won 12 out of 14 races with, could handle so poorly.
He said he had fun in the second stint of the race and was quite fast on the medium compound tyre. But Red Bull will be studying the data before this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, to see where it all went wrong.
Sainz was the star of the day, but for best performance in a support role, Lawson is your man. After finishing 13th in Zandvoort and 11th in Monza, to score two points in just his third start is a remarkable achievement and the F1 paddock took notice, as did Sky Sport, which praised him during an interview. The talk seems more about whose drive he might take,
Ricciardo’s or Tsunoda’s, next year, rather than remaining a reserve driver. The fact is, Lawson is outperforming Tusnoda in a car he is still learning to drive, and has scored points, whereas Nyck de Vries and Ricciardo before him in the same car, couldn’t.
Sky Sport guest commentator, and ex-Indycar driver, Danica Patrick, analysed the effect Ricciardo and Lawson coming into the team, has had.
“They’ve been outshining Yuki,” she said. “I mean even in the first weekend in the car, Daniel was faster so that isn’t a good look. And you know, it’s one thing to be against your teammate the whole year and not necessarily know the difference. But then when you get thrown brand new drivers and each one of them goes faster than you, it’s not a good sign.”
A good sign though for 21-year-old Hastings-born Lawson, although he is not getting carried away with his success.
“‘I would have liked a few more Grand Prix to prepare for this one, but obviously, when you get the opportunity, you have to take it with both hands,” Lawson said. “Honestly, that’s what I’m trying to do and today was fantastic. I’m happy with the race and I definitely gave it everything because I think we maximised the car’s performance. At the end of the day, I’m really happy to have scored two points.”
Japan might be Lawson’s last opportunity to further impress his team, but you get the feeling he may already have done enough to warrant that full-time F1 drive he has dreamt about and been working hard for. It couldn’t happen to a nicer young man and a very talented one at that.