The Racing Bulls driver produced a strong drive in the Sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit, charging from 13th on the grid to finish seventh and collect two points.
The result marked Lawson’s first points of the year after he failed to trouble the points in the season opener in Melbourne.
A strategy call to start the 19-lap race on hard tyres helped him steadily move forward through the field before a safety car, triggered when Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi stopped on track, reshuffled the order.
Several drivers pitted under the caution, but Lawson remained out on track, briefly moving into the top five before eventually crossing the line in seventh.
The gamble from Racing Bulls paid off in the short term, but it leaves Lawson with only one remaining set of hard tyres available for the grand prix, something he admits could hurt his chances on Sunday.
Asked if he regretted the decision after seeing how the race unfolded, Lawson admitted the move may come back to bite them.
“Yeah that’s the problem,” he said.
“Now we are one hard down, and honestly, when we made the decision this morning, we had to think about our speed.
“Yesterday, honestly, we did quite a good job, and that was where we were. So we tried to maximise today and take the advantage.
“Tomorrow will be hard for us to fight for the points. We need to find some speed, which we’ll try to do this afternoon. But yes, it potentially hurts us a little bit.”
Despite the concern over tyre availability, Lawson said the team had little choice but to take the opportunity presented by the Sprint race.
“We had strong track position towards the end, so when the Safety Car came out we didn’t want to give that up,” he explained.
“It was a bold strategy, but it worked out nicely and we were able to bring home some points.”
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Later in the day, Lawson returned to the circuit for qualifying but endured a far more difficult session, ultimately securing 14th on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.
After advancing through Q1, the Kiwi improved to a 1m33.765s in Q2, leaving him narrowly ahead of teammate Arvid Lindblad but still short of a place in the final segment.
His hopes of finding further time on a final run were dashed when Gabriel Bortoleto spun at the final corner, triggering double yellow flags and forcing both Racing Bulls drivers to abort their laps.
“Qualifying was a bit messy and we struggled to string the session together,” Lawson said.
“However, we were on a really good lap at the end and had everything coming together before the double yellow flags forced us to abort in the final corner, which was a shame.
“Tyre and energy management will be really important tomorrow. It’s going to be tough, so we’ll need a strong race strategy, which we’ll be working on tonight.”
Racing Bulls’ head of trackside engineering Mattia Spini explained the team had deliberately taken a different approach in the Sprint race in anticipation of heavy tyre degradation around the Shanghai circuit.
“We made an unconventional call to start Liam on the Hard tyre for the Sprint, expecting the compound to be more resilient to graining,” Spini said.
“It proved to be the right choice and allowed him to work his way through the field into the points when the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 13.
“Liam managed the restart well on the cold Hards, holding the position and finishing in P7.”
Spini added that qualifying showed promise before the late interruption prevented both drivers from completing their final laps.
“In Qualifying, we used two new sets of Soft tyres on both cars in Q1, giving the drivers the best opportunity to adjust back to low fuel after the Sprint,” he said.
“Both progressed into Q2 and were finding a significant amount of lap time in the second run, before a double yellow appeared in the final corner, forcing both laps to be aborted.
“Our strategy group will now focus on identifying opportunities to move forward in tomorrow’s race, which is likely to be another eventful one.”
Lindblad will start one place behind Lawson on the grid, qualifying in 15th place for the race.
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