Loose wheel in Saudi Arabia halts Liam Lawson's podium streak
Liam Lawson remains second in the FIA Formula 2 standings despite ending his podium streak with his retirement from the feature race in Jeddah.
Liam Lawson on the podium in Jeddah. (Red Bull Content Pool)
The Kiwi's streak came to an end when his wheel came loose after a pit stop during the feature race, with Lawson pulling the car over before the end of the pit lane.
"A great start to the race, got up to P3 quickly and it was all looking good but then lost it all at the pit stop," said Lawson.
"Mistakes happen, that's racing, very disappointing obviously."
"We have plenty of positives from the weekend to carry forward, knowing we have been very competitive in the opening weekends."
Race management was the story of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, with teams expecting difficult races and multiple safety cars on the tight circuit.
"Pretty much the whole race was just about trying to keep as much brake and tyre temperature under those safety cars because of those crashes that were happening," said Lawson, reflecting on his victory in the sprint race.
"There were some quite slow safety car laps, and in these cars, it's really, really hard to keep temperature, but when we did have green flag laps the car was really fast."
"I thought Jake was going to be in a great position, to be honest, because we didn't have many racing laps and he was on the softs but I was able to stay with him in those first couple of laps and then stay within DRS to make the pass."
Lawson is just nine points behind championship leader Felipe Drugovich, with everything to play for in the remaining eleven rounds.
The FIA Formula 2 championship returns April 22-24 in Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
