Lawson will start Sunday’s race from 17th after linin g up for the F1 Sprint from 10th early in the day.

The Sprint proved a dismal 19-lap encounter for the New Zealander after he struggled for grip in the opening laps which saw him plummet down the order.

Worryingly, there’s no clear explanation for the lack of grip.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Lawson said of that experience.

“We really struggled and we don’t fully know why.

“But yeah, first lap, just really struggling and just fell backwards.”

While a lack of rear grip accounted for Lawson’s drop in pace in the Sprint, traffic was a factor come qualifying.

The RB driver managed three timed laps in Qualifying 1, his best being the second at 1:22.411s.

It was a time that proved just 0.047s shy of progressing, a margin not helped by clearing traffic on the lap.

“The fact we didn’t improve on the first set of tyres we ran is obviously what’s put us back there,” Lawson reasoned.

“And when the margins of this close, it’s unfortunately just little things here and there.

“There was a lot of traffic at the last corner before starting the lap, and I think we dropped a lot of tyres in there,” he added.

“Everybody was backing up, and then through the lap I caught a little bit of traffic.

“It’s hard to get out of the way, and it’s not like I got blocked, but obviously, when we’re talking a couple of hundreds of a second, it’s just these little things that make a difference.”

It wasn’t only that Lawson had to clear other cars on track, but where he had to clear them, too as he lost time on the slower segments of the Lusail circuit.

“You could look into it and say that it’s, yeah, it’s very, very small, but following a car within five seconds here is costing you lap time because of the nature of the track,” Lawson noted.

“We’re all in the same boat. It’s, a shame [to be eliminated early], but obviously when we’re talking half a 10th or less than half a 10th, it’s, obviously can make the difference.”

Lawson will start Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, which begins at 19:00 local time (03:0 AEDT Monday) from 17th on the grid.