Lawson wants to "get on top of" handling issues after dismal qualifying in Shanghai

Liam Lawson continued his struggles in the main qualifying session for the Shanghai F1 race which prompted the New Zealander to say that "it’s just not good enough’.

Following his troubles in Australia, Liam Lawson was eager to get on top of his issues with the RB21 in China. However, the Kiwi was unable to make a good impression in sprint qualifying on Friday, suffering an early exit in SQ1.

He then had a series of entertaining battles in the 19-lap race which included an elbows-out overtake of Jack Doohan, as he climbed from P19 to P14 at the flag.

Despite the positive end to his sprint race, Lawson once again had a scrappy time in qualifying though as he lacked confidence behind the wheel of his car, and suffered an early Q1 exit.

Reflecting on his day, Lawson noted. “It was a messy session and had we not dealt with traffic, it might have been okay, but it is still not good enough to be having these issues, we should be fast enough on our first lap.

"We shouldn’t need a perfect session to get out of Q1, we should be well down the road. It’s a tough car to drive for sure and you always want more time to get used to it.

"The window in this car is really small and that is known, but that is not an excuse. I have got to get a handle on it. We have had glimpses where it feels good, and I think to drive a Formula 1 car you need 100% confidence; I am not saying I don’t have it but right now I just seem to be missing the window I need the car in – it is that I need to get on top of.

"The team are doing a really good job to support me, it is not something they can do, we are all working together and they will continue to help me with the car but it is something I need to do, I need to drive the car faster. We have an opportunity tomorrow and, a bit like in the Sprint, we will just try to move forward and take learnings to get on top of the tyre graining more. I will just try to do a better job.”