Liam Lawson put his Chinese Grand Prix sprint qualifying woes down to an inability to cool his tyres enough for his final flying lap, leading to him propping up the rest of the Formula 1 field.
The New Zealander was up to 10th after the opening runs, having opened with a 1m32.729s time, but his second attempt was aborted – and ultimately deleted – after running wide at Turn 9 and surpassing track limits.
Lawson had visibly struggled with grip over the session and had been unable to get his medium tyre temperatures down enough during his cool-down laps for his final attempt.
This left him to wrestle the car through the opening corners, notably using a lot of steering lock to get the car into the corners, before running aground towards the end of the second sector.
Lawson's struggles were in contrast to team-mate Max Verstappen, who came within a couple of hundredths of knocking Lewis Hamilton off top spot.
"I went off, so yeah, it's obviously a shame," Lawson lamented after the session. "I think from the starting point it wasn't too bad; the first lap was alright, and then we were just looking to build on there, but we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track.
"To be honest, I really struggled to get the temps down, starting the second lap, so we started too hot and then through the lap I just struggled. It's frustrating.
"It's really a shame because I think honestly we started OK in quali - first lap wasn't amazing, but it was relatively OK, so it's just a shame to be out for something so frustrating. Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are.
"Obviously we have tomorrow's sprint race to try and learn some stuff and then tomorrow's quali as well, obviously. We want to do a better job on this."
GPS data shows that, in their opening SQ1 laps, Lawson had been relatively even with Verstappen until the final sector; the Dutchman's better exit from Turn 12 helped gather more pace along the 1.2km back straight, and he then braked earlier for the low-speed Turn 14 to gather stronger exits from the final corners.
Lawson was much less certain on the throttle as a result, yielding a 0.4s gap between them after their first laps of the session. However, Lawson was unable to post anything slightly more representative due to his Turn 9 off on his final lap as Verstappen found another three tenths; improvements from the other drivers ensured the Kiwi continued to tumble down the order.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko elected not to criticise Lawson's efforts, stating that the former RB driver needed more time to prove himself – particularly given his lack of knowledge of the opening two circuits on the 2025 calendar.
"He started OK with his first quali run and then unfortunately he lost it and he did have only one lap," Helmut Marko told Autosport's sister publication, Motorsport.com's Dutch edition.
"Yeah, it's sad, but he needs some laps and he must get in a rhythm to show his potential.
"I think we have to give him more time. Both circuits, he didn't know, Melbourne and this one. So we're looking forward and of course first, next to Max, it looks also that our car is quite difficult to drive."
Additional reporting by Ronald Vording
