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Liam Lawson is hopeful his second experience of F1 qualifying is not tarnished by the chaos that unfolded during the F2 session at Monza.
Over the years across Italian Grand Prix weekends, the ‘Temple of Speed’ has become a circuit where a tow along the straight into the Parabolica has become crucial for setting a fast time.
That particular straight, however, has often resembled a car park as drivers manoeuvre into a position where they can potentially gain a tow from a team-mate or a rival, leading to pandemonium on occasion.
In the closing stages of F2 qualifying on Friday, farcical scenes unfolded as it appeared as if the drivers were involved in a race rather than trying to set a lap time.
It is a situation Lawson has experienced in his past junior career, with the New Zealander hopeful a greater degree of common sense will prevail in F1, although the pinnacle of motorsport has experienced its own crazy moments in the past.
“It should be (better), obviously,” said Lawson, when asked by Speedcafe about a cleaner qualifying. “I guess we’ll find out.
“In F2, especially, the tow is so important that nobody’s going to sacrifice their own lap. In F1, it obviously makes a big difference, but hopefully, we don’t have the same issues.”
After being thrown in at the deep end last week when Daniel Ricciardo sustained a broken hand during a crash in practice for the Dutch GP, Lawson at least had two full and dry hour-long practice sessions to further acclimatise to his AlphaTauri.
The 21-year-old finished FP2, in particular, 18th quickest, just under half a second behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
With qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix running to the ATA (alternative tyre allocation) rules this weekend – hard compound for Q1, mediums for Q2, and softs for Q3 – Lawson knows he has “time to find” between the compounds.
“I’ve definitely had better preparation (going into qualifying),” said Lawson.
“It’s basically (the understanding) between the compounds of tyres, knowing how much time to find, the jump in grip, and things like that.
“The first set on the mediums, we were fine, and then when we went to the softs, everyone found a chunk of time and I don’t think I improved, so it’s basically working out things like warm-up, and extracting everything out of the tyre.
“It’s all part of the learning, definitely some improvements to be made. At least I’m more comfortable with everything that I need to do behind the wheel as well. It obviously makes it a lot easier, but still a lot to learn as well.”
