Watch: Liam Lawson crashes out of Qatar GP Sprint race on lap one
The 2023 Qatar GP Sprint race is well underway, and chaos has ensued on the very first lap of the race. AlphaTauri driver Liam Lawson has crashed out of the event on lap one after losing control of his car while trying to make his way around a gaggle of cars. The incident has brought out a safety car, and all the cars have slowed down behind it.
Liam Lawson, being a stand-in driver for Daniel Ricciardo, was taking part in the very first Sprint race of his career and had no plans on ending his exploits on the very first lap of the 19-lap dash. He got off to a great start from the line, but as he was exiting Turn 1, he lost control of his car in the dirty air that was coming from the car ahead of him.
The New Zealander has done an exceptional job in the absence of Ricciardo for the AlphaTauri team and is most probably in his last F1 outing for some time. Daniel Ricciardo is set to return for the Austin event and will race for the team during all the Grand Prix events after the ongoing event at the Lusail International Circuit.
The Australian was forced out of F1 action when he collided with the barriers in Zandvoort and injured one of his wrists. Since then, the former eight-time Grand Prix winner has been on the road to recovery. Per the rumors, he would be a hundred percent fit when the United States Grand Prix weekend comes around.
Liam Lawson was overlooked for a 2024 AlphaTauri F1 seat
While Liam Lawson has ended his Qatar Sprint race outing on a disappointing note, things haven’t gone his way since the Japanese GP weekend. He scored his first-ever F1 points in Singapore, but despite this fact, he was overlooked by AlphaTauri for a 2024 seat. The Faenza-based team extended the contract of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda by another year at Suzuka.
Moreover, with the 2024 seat out of the question for him, the ongoing event is his last outing, and that has also not gone as planned for him so far. All that Lawson has not got left is tomorrow’s Qatar Grand Prix to showcase for one last time this year what he can do behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. Tomorrow’s 54-lap race will most probably be his previous 2023 F1 outing.
heartbreak for Liam in tonight’s race 💔
he’ll be ready to come back stronger tomorrow #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/eXKgrzpq10
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) October 7, 2023Considering everything that has been discussed above, one thing in which Liam Lawson can find some kind of solace is that he was able to hold his own against the best drivers in the world. Since getting into AT04, he has not let the team miss the presence of Ricciardo, and this is something that he can be proud of.
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