Liam Lawson said he wanted to set a lap in Q3 after Racing Bulls told him not to run in order to help his team mate.
Both Racing Bulls drivers made the cut for Q3. However with Arvid Lindblad due to take a five-place grid penalty, and Racing Bulls unlikely to out-qualify any of the other eight cars in the session, the team made a tactical decision.While Lindblad set a time which put him ninth on the grid, Lawson remained in the garage. That ensured Lawson would start ninth and Lindblad 14th; had both drivers set times and Lawson qualified ninth ahead of his team mate, Lindblad would be 15th on the grid.
“We decided that, if we got both cars into Q3, considering Arvid has a penalty for tomorrow, we wouldn’t run,” Lawson explained. “Even if we out-qualified one of the top guys, we’re not really fighting them in the race tomorrow, so it just makes sense to do this.”
Lawson reached as high as eighth in Q1 and was eager to run in Q3. “It’s a shame,” he said, “I managed to get through Q1 on one set [of tyres] and we had two new sets for Q3 so I was ready to have a proper go at it.
“But unfortunately, or fortunately, now we have plenty of tyres for tomorrow.”
This article will be updated
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