An inspired drive from Liam Lawson netted the 21-year-old New Zealander his second win of the season and has propelled him into the Super Formula Lead. The Red Bull Junior qualified second at Autopolis and the Mugen Honda slipped to 3rd off the line.
The team went for an early stop and Lawson put in a brilliant mid-race pace to take the lead when the opposition stopped later. He then managed the deteriorating tyres brilliantly to stay in front in the closing stages.
“It was a really cool weekend, the car was great and good enough for Pole which we only just missed,” commented Lawson. “The start wasn’t perfect, the left of the track is a bit dirty but also the bite point wasn’t quite right and it wasn’t a perfect launch.
“So from P3, the team went for the opposite strategy to everyone else, the early stop. It put me out in traffic that I had to get past as quickly as possible so that I could make up time on the leaders.
“The undercut worked but I had taken everything out of the tyres getting past people and there was not much left.
“The late Safety Car helped a bit in getting the tyres cooled down but they were still pretty much gone and I was just hanging on at the end.
“It’s great for the championship obviously. The team did a fantastic job all weekend, the car was great. I have to give a big thanks to Nojiri san for sticking with us through the weekend and supporting us when he had his own situation to deal with and many drivers would not have been there.”
Super Formula Autopolis
Qualifying
1/ S. Tsuboi (Inging) 1m 26.187s
2/ L. Lawson (Mugen) +0.174s
3/ S. Sakaguchi (Inging) +0.287s
Race
1/ L. Lawson (Mugen) 1h 06m 44.008s
2/ R. Miyata (Toms) +1.255s
3/ S. Tsuboi (Inging) +5.265s
Super Formula Championship Points after 4 of 9 races – Next round Sugo June 17/18
1/ L. Lawson (Mugen) 57 points
2/ R. Miyata (Toms) 53
3/ S. Tsuboi (Inging) 46
Comments