Liam Lawson explained that he enjoys Curva Alboreto’s extended gravel trap as it adds more jeopardy to the final turn at Monza.
The Carlin driver performed admirably in qualifying finishing in second place behind Alpine Academy member Jack Doohan.
The gravel trap has been brought closer to the outside of the circuit and caught out 20-year-old Ayumu Iwasa who crashed at Curva Alboreto ending his qualifying session.
Lawson said when speaking to the media at the pre-weekend press conference: “In the past, you could make a mistake obviously it’s a very high-speed corner as Jack said finishing the lap.
“So you could make a mistake in the past and just run out wide and sort of come back on and not lose anything so now if you make a mistake you obviously end up in the gravel and I guess it caught a couple of guys out today.
“But in my opinion, I quite like having the gravel like this we had it in Spa as well it reduces the risk of track limits which can be really frustrating as drivers to have when you’re racing other cars or things like that so for me it’s not such a bad thing.”
The pole sitter Doohan added: “Obviously it’s quite a historic corner and it finishes the lap that’s already quite a crazy lap and there’s obviously time to be found.
It’s a high-speed corner and everyone’s giving it full beans, especially trying to extract everything and obviously, it’s very easy for it to go wrong.
“Especially now due to the gravel being brought closer to the exit of the track and making errors is easier but not just having bitumen at the runoff.’
Lawson will start Saturday’s Sprint Race deep in the midfield from ninth place and said that due to Race 1 yielding less points than the Feature Race the Red Bull Junior will be focusing more of his attention on Sunday’s event.
“I think there’s less points in the Sprint Race obviously and it’s P8 for the first points so we have to make up a place or two at least anyway to receive points.
“So I think in the position we’re in it’s very low points down at that end so we can afford to I guess to take little risks but I guess the main focus is on Sunday’s race so I think for all three of us we’ll be trying to move forwards.”
Image: Redbull Content Pool
