Liam Lawson will continue to drive for AlphaTauri at this weekend’s F1 Italian GP, as Daniel Ricciardo has a successful surgery.
After an unfortunate hit to Ricciardo’s hand in FP2, AlphaTauri confirmed Lawson as his replacement for the rest of the F1 Dutch GP weekend. It was not the easiest start for the Kiwi in difficult conditions in FP3 where he had a spin as well.
He was knocked out in Q1 but drove a solid race in mixed conditions to end up a respectable 13th even beating Yuki Tsunoda. Both Lawson and the Japanese driver had separate penalties but the Kiwi stayed out of trouble to survive and complete his first race.
“It was good, it was a lot going on,” said Lawson. “When I was rolling up to the grid and it was starting to rain, it wasn’t the best feeling but the race was okay. We lost a huge amount of time at the start with the stack and then we had no choice but to make the pit stop but unfortunately got the penalty as well so lost a lot of time.
“I think the second half of the race was not so bad, once we got clean air and also on the inters at the end was not too bad. Just happy to survive,” summed up Lawson, who is also confirmed to take part in this weekend’s Italian GP. In fact, he will drive the car until Ricciardo is fit which could see him miss more races.
At the moment, the target seems to be for a Singapore return and or Japan, but it depends on the recovery from the surgery that he completed in Barcelona on Sunday which was conducted by specialist Dr. Xavier Mir, who has operated several MotoGP riders and also Lance Stroll at the start of the 2023 season.
“We are delighted that Daniel’s surgery went well and that he is now on the road to recovery,” said a short statement from AlphaTauri. “We hope to see him at the track again very soon, but until he is fully fit, we can confirm that Liam, who did a good job in difficult circumstances in Zandvoort, will continue to drive alongside Yuki, starting from our home race this weekend in Monza.”
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Here’s how F1 Dutch GP panned out
