Liam Lawson has landed a cheeky swipe at Yuki Tsunoda by saying he anticipated the Pink Bull driver to be sooner on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Racing Bulls driver impressively held off Tsunoda’s Pink Bull to say his greatest F1 outcome with fifth place in Baku, having secured third place on the grid with a shocking lap in qualifying.
Lawson produced a defensive masterclass to maintain a gaggle of vehicles together with Tsunoda behind him within the closing phases regardless of not having DRS.
“I imply, for certain, [Tsunoda] is on a recent set of tyres, on a Medium, on a grippier tyre and, actually, I used to be making ready for him to finish up catching me faster, and I anticipated them to be sooner,” Lawson stated.
“Clearly, taking a look at Max as we speak, that they had an incredible race, and the automotive appears good.
“So I feel once I noticed him come out on a greater tyre, I used to be anticipating him to catch me sooner. However I feel our sector three was extraordinarily sturdy this weekend, it’s the place it wanted to be.”
Lawson’s teammate Isack Hadjar completed tenth as Racing Bulls celebrated a double factors end.
The outcome sees Pink Bull’s sister crew overtake Aston Martin and transfer as much as sixth place within the constructors’ championship.
Liam Lawson
Yuki Tsunoda claims he held again
Explaining his facet of the battle, Tsunoda, who secured his greatest outcome since changing his former teammate Lawson at Pink Bull earlier this season, admitted he held again and will have tried more durable to assault.
“Particularly [with a] McLaren behind, [I was] eager about the championship, each the crew and drivers’ championship for Max,” Tsunoda stated.
“There have been numerous alternatives I may in all probability go inside and assault Liam, however there’s much more danger that perhaps the McLaren will overtake each of us, or both [of us],” he stated.
“So I feel as a Pink Bull [driver], you don’t need to have that, and I feel I did the best determination [by] not difficult him. However on the identical time I didn’t have sufficient tempo additionally to overhaul comfortably.”
Each drivers are preventing for his or her futures, with Tsunoda under-pressure to maintain his Pink Bull seat for 2026, whereas Lawson is aiming to be retained by Racing Bulls.
Lawson sits thirteenth within the drivers’ championship with 30 factors, whereas Tsunoda is seventeenth with 10 factors fewer.
Baku marked the primary time for the reason that 2020 Russian Grand Prix that every one 4 Pink Bull-backed drivers completed inside the highest 10 in the identical race.
