Liam Lawson has said he expected a challenge to be mounted by Yuki Tsunoda earlier in the closing stages of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.

Lawson earned a fifth-placed finish in Baku on Sunday, converting his second-row start into a career-best finish in Formula 1, one place ahead of his Red Bull replacement, Tsunoda.

Liam Lawson: ‘I was expecting [Tsunoda] to catch me faster’

The Racing Bulls driver had a close call with the Red Bull after Tsunoda exited the pits, with Lawson using his warm tyres to make an overtake into Turn 3.

He would not relinquish that advantage, either, with Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton all within DRS range to try and make a move.

The New Zealander was able to keep all three at arm’s length for the remainder of the race, admitting he learned his lesson when Kimi Antonelli found his way past, by deploying his battery to defend on the pit straight.

Tsunoda also earned his best finish since his promotion to Red Bull earlier in the season, but he crossed the line behind a Red Bull stablemate in Lawson.

Having had medium tyres with which to attack compared to the hard compound for Lawson, the 23-year-old admitted he thought he would be put under more pressure in the closing stages – though he was also using his battery power in a different way.

“I mean, for sure, [Tsunoda] is on a fresh set of tyres, on a medium, on a grippier tyre and, honestly, I was preparing for him to end up catching me quicker, and I expected them to be faster,” Lawson said after the race.

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“Obviously, looking at Max today, they had a great race, and the car looks good.

“So I think when I saw him come out on a better tyre, I was expecting him to catch me faster, but I think our sector three was extremely strong this weekend, it’s where it needed to be.

“To that mistake with Kimi, I made sure that I never ran out of energy again.”

As for Tsunoda himself, he felt the pit exit was crucial in being able to make up another place, and a slightly quicker run away from the pit lane could have seen him move up a place.

Nonetheless, he was pleased with how his afternoon in Baku panned out.

“In the second stint, unfortunately, if I was able to rejoin two metres faster, probably I would have been able to keep the Liam behind,” Tsunoda said.

“Anyway, I’m still happy with it. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy, and I think something I’m able to improve into this race week, especially long run, was massive and also something internally got supported by the team to make these changes to the car, which affected a lot [of the] long run today. So yeah, it was just good.”

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