Liam Lawson was dejected after losing a potential points finish when the Safety Car was deployed in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Racing Bulls driver made his final pit stop 11 laps before the Safety Car was deployed and had just moved up to 10th place when the race was neutralised. However he said the timing of its arrival played into the hands of those he was racing against.
“From our side it was a very strong race, we just ended up in the wrong position,” he told the official F1 channel afterwards. “We missed the Safety Car line by half a second, probably, and so everybody in front of us boxed and we just got screwed.
“So to have it that close after all the work we did in the race, it just sucks.”
Fernando Alonso was running behind Lawson when the Safety Car was deployed. The Aston Martin driver was able to pit and used his fresh tyres to take the final points position off Lawson with two laps to go.
“At the end of the day we’re here to score points and it’s frustrating,” said Lawson.
He was cleared over two separate incidents in the race involving two rivals. Alexander Albon made contact with the Haas when Bearman passed him at turn one. The stewards ruled that clash was not Bearman’s fault.
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The stewards also cleared Bearman for making “minor contact” with Isack Hadjar during an attempted pass at turn one.
“Car 30 (Lawson) was attempting to overtake car 87 (Bearman) on the inside of turn one,” the stewards ruled. “Car 30 was nowhere near the mirror of car 87 at the apex.
“There was minor contact between the two cars during this attempt and Car 87 took the escape road. Both cars maintained their respective positions before the minor collision. We therefore determined this to be a racing incident and took no further action.”
The stewards issued a 10-second time penalty to Bearman for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while racing Lawson.
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