The RB driver, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo, had tempered his own expectations at the United States Grand Prix.
A 60-place grid penalty for a myriad of changes to his VCARB 01 meant he’d start the feature race last.
Perhaps it was the best place to be. The only way was forward for Lawson and at Turn 1 he capitalised on the first lap melee and swept around the outside to gain five places.
The 22-year-old ran a one-stop strategy and wound up inside the points at the chequered flag.
“Holy shit,” Lawson said over the radio to his engineer Pierre Hamelin.
“How did we do that?”
Hamelin replied, “You were fast, this is how we did it.”
Speaking with Sky Sports F1 post-race, Lawson said the start set the tone for his race.
“The start was the most important part. We made up four or five spots on the first lap,” Lawson explained.
“To be honest, strategy-wise, we were just planning on taking it easy at the start but everything happened and opportunities opened up.
“I knew from that point we were in a good position on a good tyre and it just came to us.
“I think Haas this weekend were very strong. I don’t know if we would have been able to beat them in the race having started in the top 10.
“To finish in the points from where we started is very cool.”
Lawson, by his own admission, couldn’t have prepared for his F1 return without seat time – something he’s been starved of since his run of F1 races at the back end of 2023.
“I definitely felt rusty,” said Lawson.
“No matter how much training or preparation that you do, nothing prepares you for driving one of these cars.
“Honestly, I’ve worked harder than ever over the last 12 months physically to be ready for this, but we did very limited testing as well.
“It was hard and Friday was a battle with one practice session going into quali. It’s never a nice feeling not feeling completely comfortable to throw the car into a corner like you want to.
“It was tough but I wanted to get to the end of the weekend and feel comfortable and I think we were able to do that.”
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The weekend’s format didn’t lend itself to a smooth return.
Lawson had a solitary 60-minute practice session on Friday (local time) before qualifying for Saturday’s sprint.
He qualified 15th and finished 16th in the 19-lap race before qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix.
Lawson fired something of a warning shot with the third quickest time in Q1 but didn’t bother to set a competitive lap time in Q2 owing to the grid penalties.
“Today was good, today was really, really good,” said Lawson of his ninth place finish.
“I think I felt like after yesterday we didn’t get to show the true pace. I think we showed that in Q1 obviously but with track evolution and everything like that we would have improved in Q2 and had a solid shot at Q3.
“I knew we were going to have speed today. I hoped we’d have speed but obviously the race is very different. We made a big step with the car yesterday but you never know if it’s going to be the same in the race. Thankfully, it was.
“The first stint on the hard we were able to keep extending. The car was just getting more and more comfortable. I was adjusting as well. Very happy.”
Lawson continues his F1 season with RB at the Mexico City Grand Prix on October 26-28.
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