How did Liam Lawson fare in his debut at F1 Dutch Grand Prix?

The Red Bull junior driver was thrown into the AlphaTauri on Saturday morning at the F1 Dutch Grand Prix, after Daniel Ricciardo had injured a hand a day earlier.

Lawson finished the race in 13th, after getting a 10-second time penalty for impeding in the pitlane, in very challenging weather conditions.

“It was a little bit sketchy, conditions were all over the place,” the New Zealander reacted.

“On the grid it started raining – not the best feeling. 

“I was obviously learning a huge amount, the first part was the best, we lost a bit of time with the stacking and the penalty. 

“That’s all part of it obviously, the second half I started to get a bit of feeling on the softs and the clean air, and on the inters as well, I felt a lot more comfortable than yesterday, that’s for sure.”

He said about bringing his AlphaTauri, a car he’d never previously driven, home: “You always look back and I’ll reflect on this and there’s definitely things I would have liked to do better.

“But yeah, reasonably satisfied with that.”

Lawson’s most eye-catching moment was overtaking the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, although he lost the position back shortly after.

“Yeah, that was quite eventful to be fair,” he said. 

“I think he was struggling a lot on the softs and every time I passed him he passed me back on the straight, so a little bit frustrating but obviously it’s good to get experience. 

“I feel like I had experience of every situation in that race with multiple pit stops, wheel-to-wheel racing, dry, so it was a good learning experience.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said about Lawson’s debut: “ Again, the poor guy getting dropped in a car he’s never driven, wet, dry conditions… 

“I actually think he did pretty well. And he actually overtook Max on Max’s outlap as he changed onto the intermediate tires at the end there. 

“To finish a race like that in itself with the lack of experience that he has, I thought in very difficult circumstances, he applied himself very well.”

Lawson is expected to be back for at least one more race, next weekend in Monza, and reports on Monday morning suggest he could be needed for Singapore too as Ricciardo recovers.