Red Bull junior Liam Lawson has revealed he suffered a scare with a false neutral behind the safety car on his way to a historic Super Formula debut victory at Fuji.
Lawson stunned the Japanese series establishment by becoming the first driver in the modern Super Formula era to win on debut, after pulling off an undercut strategy to overtake his Mugen team-mate and two-time champion Tomoki Nojiri.
The New Zealander had led the field by more than five seconds when the safety car was called after a collision between Giuliano Alesi and Nirei Fukuzumi on lap 36 of 41 at Turn 1.
The race would eventually end behind the safety car as the cleanup operation could not be completed in time, allowing Lawson to close out the win unchallenged.
However, the 21-year-old admitted he was lucky to be able to claw his car back to life after he briefly lost control behind the safety car.
“I had a false neutral, I was in gear but no drive, so I almost stopped,” Lawson told Motorsport.com after the race. “It was very stressful!
“The safety car was pulling away from me and luckily Nojiri-san waited as long as possible to sort it out. In the end I managed to get it going again. I don’t even know what I’ve done. I just he was pushing buttons, pulling clutch levers! We have to look into it.
“But I would have preferred the race to end under the green flag, he had a good pace.”
Liam Lawson, Tomoki Nojiri, Team Mugen
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
Lawson was second behind Nojiri for most of the early part of the race after sending off Toshiki Oyu early on, and was the first of the two Mugen drivers to make their mandatory stop on lap 21.
Nojiri came in next time, initially retaking the lead, but was powerless to hold off a charge from Lawson on cold tires and lacked the pace to threaten his new team-mate before calling the last car of safety
“The car just came to me, it felt great,” Lawson reflected. “The balance was very even, I was able to keep pressing and I didn’t have much of a problem.
“This morning [in qualifying] It’s hard to say if the car was perfect or not, because I was still learning the track. There is more lap time in the car and now I have more experience, hopefully I can be a bit more comfortable tomorrow [for the second race of the Fuji double-header].
“I expect it to be very tough tomorrow. But the strongest point was the race pace; once everything settled down, the balance was very strong.”
Lawson admitted he was unaware of the enormity of his achievement, with no other driver winning on debut since the start of the “modern” Super Formula era in 1996.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, honestly!” the Kiwi replied when asked about the issue. “Very happy with the result, but speaking of the story, it’s not something I would have thought about before.
“It’s great to have it now, but before the race you just focus on doing the best job possible. If you look at these things, you can get ahead of yourself.”
Liam Lawson, Tomoki Nojiri, Team Mugen
Photo by: Masahide Kamio
