‘Team’ orders for Lawson with Tsunoda behind? ‘None at all’

Liam Lawson’s fifth place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was never under threat from the Red Bull pit wall despite the Racing Bulls driver keeping Yuki Tsunoda at bay, says Alan Permane.

Red Bull hopefuls Lawson and Tsunoda recorded their best results of the season on the streets of Baku, where Lawson was fifth with Tsunoda six-tenths behind him for the senior team at the chequered flag.

Liam Lawson beat Yuki Tsunoda at the Azerbaijan GP

Lawson was under extreme pressure from Tsunoda in the closing stages, with the Japanese driver all over his rear wing at points, but wary of making an audacious move as he had Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton right behind him, the four running in a DRS train.

“Especially McLaren behind, [I was] thinking about the championship, both the team and Drivers’ championship for Max,” Tsunoda told F1TV.

“There were a lot of opportunities I could probably go inside and attack Liam, but there’s a lot more risk that maybe the McLaren will overtake both of us, or either [of us].”

As for Lawson, he had a different approach as he was willing to risk it all to retain fifth in the running order.

“I had no idea what position I was in until we crossed the line, but I knew we were in a decent position because of all the cars that were behind me,” he said. “So naturally, you’re just trying to keep the car behind.

“At the end of the race, obviously, I’m going to try and take a bit more risk to keep it there.”

One thing was certain, though, there wouldn’t be any instructions between the two Red Bull-owned teams.

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“There were none at all,” Permane confirmed to DAZN. “We weren’t going to let him through, of course.

“Liam did a great job keeping behind a faster car. Yuki had fresh medium tyres and Liam did a great job holding him off with elbows out.

“Liam is very tough mentally, very strong. He’s been focused all weekend. He drove perfectly. He’d never raced here in F1, yes in F2 but that’s very different.

“He kept progressing from FP1, FP2, FP3. Qualifying was extraordinary and the race exceptional.”

He added: “A pity to go from P3 to P5 but we knew we didn’t have the pace to fight with the Mercedes. Even so, being ahead of the McLarens, both Ferraris and one Red Bull is incredible, a great drive by Liam.”

Bringing in 11 points in Baku, with Isack Hadjar completing the points in 10th place, Racing Bulls moved up to 72 points and overhauled Aston Martin for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship. And Permane has his eye on Williams in fifth.

“We’ll try,” he said. “If we can have perfect weekends, maybe. They [Williams] were faster than us here and also in Monza.

“Now we go to higher-downforce circuits and maybe we’ll have the advantage over them. Tracks more like Zandvoort where we had more pace than them.”

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