Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Liam Lawson was ruled out of sprint qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix after a hydraulic failure in FP1 triggered an early red flag and left Racing Bulls without enough time to repair his car.
On a sprint weekend, the damage was immediate. Lawson stopped on the exit of Turn 2 just 12 minutes into the only practice session after losing power steering, bringing his Racing Bulls to a halt and forcing a red flag so the car could be recovered.
That left Lawson with almost no useful running before the first competitive session of the weekend, and the recovery itself quickly became part of the problem. Speaking in the team principals’ press conference in Montreal around 40 minutes after practice had ended, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane said the team still had not received the car back in the garage.
“It's very frustrating, especially on a Sprint weekend. It's tough to lose the car so early on,” Permane said. He added that the initial issue was “a hydraulic leak” but said the extent of the damage was still unclear because the car had not yet returned. “It could be something very simple and we could be out comfortably for the next session, or it could be something a bit more terminal.”
The stoppage also led to a technical investigation over Lawson’s CDS clutch disengagement system after marshals were unable to use the neutral function during recovery. Permane explained that the CDS is a critical recovery device because it allows marshals to disengage the clutch even if the engine is not running.
By the time sprint qualifying approached, Racing Bulls had still not completed the rebuild. Reports from the paddock indicated Lawson’s car did not have a gearbox fitted and several major components had been removed as mechanics worked against the clock. When the session began, Lawson was on the pit wall and out of his race overalls, confirming the team had run out of time.
For Lawson, that means his Montreal sprint weekend was effectively compromised almost as soon as it began, with the only practice hour lost and no chance to set a time in sprint qualifying.