Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies was encouraged by what he saw from Liam Lawson in his second race since returning to the team last weekend.
On the face of it, the former Red Bull driver suffered a difficult weekend. Lawson failed to progress from Q1 when his DRS closed after he backed off to reduce wheelspin on his final lap. He finished the race 16th after picking up two penalties for collisions with rivals.
However Mekies said Lawson, who finished ahead of team mate Isack Hadjar before his penalties were applied, made clear progress last weekend.
“It may not have showed on the time sheet, but he made a very significant step forward compared to Japan,” said Mekies. “The pace is there, building up step by step.”
Although Lawson came away point-less from Sunday’s race, his pace during the grand prix was encouraging. He got ahead of Hadjar at the start, despite starting on harder tyres than his team mate, then rose to ninth place before pitting.
After running his middle stint on hard tyres Lawson switched to a set of softs when the Safety Car was deployed. He got ahead of Hadjar again after the Safety Car period, then passed Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s damaged Williams and Jack Doohan to finish 13th on the road. He picked up penalties for making contact during his passes on Hulkenberg and Doohan.
Mekies expects to see Lawson “piece it all together” at this weekend’s race in Jeddah. Lawson has previously raced at the track in Formula 2.
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Lawson said he “had good speed but just couldn’t really use it” in Bahrain. “The only way I could overtake was lunging quite late. I wasn’t intentionally touching others, but obviously the stewards made their decision with the penalties, so we’ll have to review the incidents.
“It’s a shame we don’t have the results to show us pushing forwards as a team, as the car was really fast in qualifying and we didn’t get to show it. The car was also fast in the race, but there’s obviously only so much you can do starting from the back. It was just a race that just didn’t quite come together.”
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