However, after tension between the Racing Bulls teammates in Azerbaijan, Lawson would have been further adrift were it not for Arvid Lindblad, who gave the Kiwi a tow – breaking the air in front of him – for his final lap of the second session.
“It’s pretty annoying,” Lawson said post-qualifying. “We looked quite comfortable in practice this morning.
“I’m not sure where we lost so much pace. The car’s been quite competitive this weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t know if it’s the temperature or what, but we struggled more with tyres in this session.
“We’ll try to move forward in the race tomorrow.”
In brutally hot conditions that McLaren’s Oscar Piastri compared to “driving on sandpaper”, Lawson couldn’t earn an eighth Q3 appearance of the season, with a best time of 1m 37.023s, and missed the chance to start in the top 10 despite a five-place grid penalty to Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.
Lawson, though, can at least take solace from the fact that of his 10 points finishes so far this season, four have come when starting outside the top 10.
What’s more, his record in Malaysia as a junior driver, three race wins out of three attempts, three poles and three fastest laps, all make for good reading.
At the front of the grid, the same two drivers who began first and second last time Formula One raced in Malaysia will do so again, albeit in a different order.
Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Photo / Red Bull
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole by 0.298s and became the first driver this season to qualify first in a non-Mercedes powered car, trailed by the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton in second.
Verstappen hasn’t won a race since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he was denied a fifth-straight world championship by just two points.
Hadjar qualified third but will start eighthwith his place taken by world championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will join him on the second row.
Meanwhile, in the battle to be “best of the rest” as the highest-starting driver outside the top four teams, Lawson will have to take a back seat to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who qualified ninth.
Despite his heroics in trying to aid Lawson into Q3, Lindblad will start at the back of the grid regardless, after also taking a grid penalty for changing his engine.
The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia gets underway at 8pm on Sunday (NZT).
Having advanced from Q1 in every race weekend of the year so far, Lawson made sure that record wouldn’t change in Malaysia.
Liam Lawson drives at Sepang during the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Photo / I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
A first lap of 1m 37.835s was enough for the Kiwi to sit 10th once all 22 drivers had posted their opening time and improved to 1m 37.332s. While that mark saw him fall from 10th to finish the opening stage in 12th, Lawson still progressed into Q2 with 0.638s to spare.
However, Lawson wasn’t able to improve on that time to open Q2, as a time of 1m 37.773s meant the Kiwi’s first mark was slower than the one he set one session earlier.
And while he was able to improve again to 1m 37.023s – courtesy of teamwork from Lindblad – Lawson fell just over two-tenths of a second shy of being able to progress and earn his eighth Q3 appearance of the season.