A year ago, on the occasion of the Japanese GP, Liam Lawson returned to Racing Bulls after a disappointing start to the season at Red Bull, a team that decided to replace him with local hero Yuki Tsunoda mid-championship. Today, still with the Faenza-based team’s car, the New Zealander took part in the first two free practice sessions on the Suzuka circuit, closing with a good 8th time in FP1, but not entering the ‘points zone’ in the next session with 12th place.
An overall performance that satisfied the 24-year-old, even more so a season away from that negative turning point in his career, when the chance to prove his potential in a top team closed: “It’s fantastic to be back at Suzuka and I had a really pleasant day – he commented – things are very different compared to last year with these new cars. We made some changes between FP1 and FP2 because we were having difficulties with the car at high speed, but we managed to improve the balance and learned a lot in the process. Now we’re in a good position to get the car into an optimal window ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying. It will be a tight battle, so everything is still up for grabs”.
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There was finally some curiosity about the absolute debut at Suzuka of Arvid Lindblad, who has already impressed on his F1 debut this season. The British driver, in fact, posted the 10th time in FP1, only to remain in the pits in the Japanese afternoon due to a breakdown: “Today was a bit of an unlucky day. We had a gearbox problem in FP2, which is why I wasn’t able to run in that session. Both Liam and I started with a similar setup in FP1, but we encountered the same car limitations, so we decided to proceed in a similar direction to try to improve: he was happier, so it’s promising for tomorrow. Overall, the track is really fun to drive and I can’t wait for the grip to increase, especially in qualifying. It’s hard to know where we’ll position ourselves at the moment, but the midfield group is quite compact. We’ll work together with the team to try to reach Q3″.
