Red Bull driver Liam Lawson has confirmed that his 35-place grid penalty at the Italian Grand Prix was planned, with the New Zealander focusing on race pace throughout the weekend at Monza.

And he has admitted that he “didn’t really know what I was doing” in qualifying after criticising Red Bull’s “appalling” execution over team radio.

Liam Lawson to start Italian Grand Prix from back of grid

Lawson will start from the back of Sunday’s grid at Monza after Red Bull opted for an engine change, with the new components adding up to a 35-place grid drop in total.

A change to the rules over recent years means that drivers who incur a grid penalty of more than 15 places must automatically start at the back of the grid, putting Lawson 21st on the grid at Monza.

Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli and Williams’ Alex Albon also carried back-of-the-grid penalties into qualifying. Lawson starts a place behind Antonelli, and one ahead of Albon.

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Lawson was heard accusing Red Bull of hanging him out to dry over team radio after falling in Q2 at Monza, with the New Zealander criticising the team’s “appalling” execution.

He was eliminated after being impeded by Oscar Piastri at Turn 1, with the McLaren driver receiving a three-place grid drop as a result.

Lawson’s penalty was only made official shortly before Saturday’s qualifying session.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the session, however, Lawson confirmed that Red Bull always planned for him to take a penalty this weekend.

He said: “It was planned before the weekend, so something I knew coming into it, which is why we spent yesterday [Friday practice] just focusing on the race.”

Lawson confirmed that the plan had been for him to reach Q3 despite his penalty in order to give teammate Max Verstappen an all-important slipstream.

He explained: “I think that was what we were focused on, but obviously need to get there to be able to do it and I think we didn’t optimise this quali, so it’s a shame.

“I just spent the whole quali in clean air until that last lap.

“It was the first time I’d sat behind a car and the tyres were super-hot.

“It just wasn’t an ideal situation, so trying to do it for the first time was not ideal. But I think obviously having Oscar at Turn 1 probably hurt more than anything.”

Pressed on the impeding incident with Piastri, he added: “It just wasn’t ideal.

“We obviously left it to the end there to try and put a lap together. Tyres were pretty hot and then obviously not ideal getting blocked at Turn 1.

“The goal was to try and focus this weekend on the race anyway. Obviously, we’ve got a penalty for tomorrow, so yesterday we were very long run-focused anyway.”

Asked directly by PlanetF1.com if his team radio outburst was made in the heat of the moment, Lawson replied: “For sure.

“We just had a plan and in some ways didn’t really follow it exactly.

“So for me, I just felt at times I didn’t really know what I was doing.

“But obviously, for us this weekend quali wasn’t really important for us. We start at the back tomorrow, so hopefully we can have a strong race tomorrow.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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