Liam Lawson’s debut season with Red Bull suffered another hammer blow as the New Zealander was again slowest in qualifying.
After finishing last of the 20 drivers in the sprint shootout, to add to his 19th place start in the season-opening race in Australia, Lawson knew all eyes would be on him at the Shanghai International Circuit for the main qualifying session.
Lawson, however, clearly has problems in finding harmony with the RB21 as the 22-year-old was embarrassingly rock-bottom of the timesheet again with a time of 1:32.174s, making it three successive Q1 exits.
To rub salt into Lawson’s gaping wounds, Racing Bulls duo Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda were second and third fastest, both a second quicker than the Red Bul driver.
Lawson also finished seven-tenths of a second adrift of team-mate Max Verstappen.
There was a moment when Lawson appeared to be facing a penalty as he was noted for ignoring yellow flags at one stage, but was swiftly cleared.
After starting from last on the grid in the sprint – 19th due to Stake’s Nico Hulkenberg starting from the pit lane – and making his way up to 15th, Lawson now faces a difficult Sunday afternoon in Shanghai to salvage anything from a horrific weekend.
