Saving tyres for Austin race "just makes sense" after Q3 sacrifice, says Liam Lawson
Liam Lawson will start the 2026 United States Grand Prix from ninth, but the Racing Bulls driver watched Q3 from the media pen rather than the cockpit — and he's at peace with the call.
With teammate Arvid Lindblad carrying a five-place grid penalty for taking a sixth internal combustion engine (ICE), Racing Bulls opted not to send Lawson out for the final flying lap at the Circuit of the Americas, banking a fresh set of tyres for Sunday instead.
"We decided that if we got both cars into Q3, considering Arvid [Lindblad] has a penalty for tomorrow, then we wouldn't run," Lawson explained. "Even if we out-qualified one of the top guys, we're not really fighting them in the race tomorrow, so it just makes sense to do this."
It wasn't without a tinge of regret. Lawson had navigated Q1 on a single set and entered Q3 with two fresh sets available — a rarity for the midfield squad. He admitted he asked the team to let him run.
"I asked to go out, honestly," Lawson said. "I said, 'I want to go and do it,' and they said no. So, yeah, it's frustrating a little bit for a driver, especially because we've had a very strong weekend so far and the car's been very good."
"It's a shame, honestly. I managed to get through Q1 on one set [of soft tyres] and we had two new sets [of soft tyres] for Q3, so I was ready to have a proper go at it. But unfortunately — or fortunately — now we have plenty of tyres for tomorrow."
The decision leaves Lawson ninth on the grid, effectively the best of the rest behind the top four teams. His race, however, will be anything but comfortable. Pierre Gasly's Alpine lines up directly behind him in tenth, with the gap between them in Q2 just 0.022 seconds.
"Yeah, we just need to drive a good race tomorrow," Lawson said. "Obviously we start just in front of them — I think Pierre will be next to me — so I'm sure it's going to be very, very close. They've been very strong, but I think we had a good long run on Friday, so we'll see tomorrow."
With tyre degradation expected to be a factor around COTA, those saved sets could prove decisive in Lawson's bid to hold off the Alpine challenge — and cement his status as the midfield's benchmark in Austin.
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