Why Monza has been second time unlucky for Lawson and Tsunoda

Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda both impressed when they made substitute appearances at Zandvoort, particularly given the last-minute nature of the decision for Isack Hadjar to step aside.

It was a hugely important weekend for Tsunoda in particular, putting him back on the paddock’s radar. Lawson, meanwhile, is by no means guaranteed a race seat for 2027, with Nikola Tsolov waiting in the wings, and showing what he could do in a Red Bull strengthened his hand.

It was natural to assume that, given a second chance in Italy and a little more preparation, they would take another step forward. However, Monza has proved difficult for both so far and delivered something of a reality check.

Although it was not initially known to the wider world, Lawson came into the weekend knowing he'd have one hand tied behind his back after Red Bull decided to change power unit elements that would send him to the back of the grid.

That naturally meant a strong focus on race preparation in practice, but he still had the opportunity to earn a good position in Qualifying. Crucially, he was also tasked with giving team mate Max Verstappen a tow, a job Isack Hadjar performed so well at Spa.

In the end, Lawson did not complete his mission, managing only P13 in Q2 and failing to progress to Q3. It was a scrappy session for the New Zealander, made worse when Oscar Piastri impeded him at the start of his final run.

“It just wasn't ideal,” Lawson said. “We obviously left it to the end there to try and put a lap together. Tyres were pretty hot after just one cool, and then yeah, obviously not ideal getting blocked at Turn 1.

“I just spent the whole quali in clean air until that last lap, that was the first time I'd sat behind a car. So trying to do it for the first time was not ideal. But I think obviously having Oscar in Turn 1 probably hurt more than anything.”

He made his feelings clear on team radio about how things had unfolded.

“I mean, we just had a plan, and in some ways, we didn't really follow it exactly,” he said. “So for me, I just felt at times I didn't really know what I was doing. But obviously, for us this weekend quali wasn't really important for us."

Tsunoda meanwhile, is due to start from P15. The Racing Bulls driver qualified P17 after being knocked out in Q1, before penalties for other drivers moved him up the grid.

It was always going to be a tough weekend for Tsunoda, who had much to learn about energy management that had not been relevant at Zandvoort. On Friday, he acknowledged a lack of confidence and even admitted that at times he had forgotten to activate straight-line mode – something drivers do four times a lap at Monza.

He appeared to be making solid progress, but something clearly went wrong in Q1, with a 1.028-second gap to team mate Arvid Lindblad underlining the scale of the problem. After the session, Tsunoda was at a loss to explain it.

“There were some challenges through FP1 to FP3, something I can't control,” The Japanese racer said. “Qualifying it was probably bigger, but I appreciate the amount of work the team put in to solve that, and I understand it was very, very tight between FP3 and Qualifying. Hard to hear the answer, but I think something new happened in Qualifying.”

He added: “If you look first sector, I was like seven-tenths off, and there's only two corners.”

Tsunoda was adamant that by Qualifying he had a better understanding of the car.

“There were three sessions, and I explained a lot of things,” he said. “I don't think I've done anything massively wrong enough to lose lap time a lot, basically in the straight line, so I don't know. I have to hear the answer.

“But I appreciate the work of the team. I know the team is putting 100% effort and appreciate it. And also obviously that was pretty up and down sessions for me as well. There's obviously a lot of things on my side as well. But Qualifying I'm really curious, because the delta was pretty big.

“I'm pretty sure I didn't do any special things in Qualifying. I shouldn't be that slow, in my opinion. There are a lot of factors in Qualifying come in, because you have to get the slipstream and make the tow, and 95% or whatever on the throttle. But I think I've done a lot of things in practice, and it happen like this. So I want to hear answers.”