Liam Lawson endured another challenging outing for Red Bull at the Chinese Grand Prix as he failed to make any significant progress to infiltrate the points-paying positions.
In Qualifying for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, the New Zealander found himself at the bottom of the order in 20th – while he made some headway during the Sprint, surging through the field to P14, there were hopes he could do even more in Sunday’s 56-lap race despite another lowly starting slot.
Ahead of the race Red Bull made some adjustments to the set-up on Lawson’s car under Parc Ferme conditions, which relegated him to a pit lane start, with the intention to give him a car that would suit him more favourably.
However, while several drivers – most notably the Haas pair of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman – took advantage of the unanticipated tyre life to charge into the top 10, the 23-year-old never came close to the points and finished the race in P15, which eventually became P12 following the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly.
