While most of the paddock describes 62°C track temperatures and 34°C air like they’re narrating a sauna rather than a race track, Liam Lawson took a rather more practical approach to the problem. Racing Bulls finished both practice sessions inside the top 10, and the Kiwi summed up his day plainly: “It was a fairly positive day here at the Bahrain GP. The track is fun to drive but very hard on tyres, particularly given the fact it hasn’t been resurfaced in a few years.”

The real issue isn’t the heat on its own, though — it’s the heat combined with an abrasive, years-old surface that’s picking up stones and chewing through rubber every lap. Lawson isn’t pretending there’s a cleverer way around it: tyre management, not outright pace, is shaping up as the key to both qualifying and the race itself.

Team boss Alan Permane sounded pleased with both cars, pointing to clear progress between sessions — the track turned out “a lot smoother than we anticipated,” which prompted setup tweaks ahead of FP2. A pleasant surprise, perhaps, but hardly enough to offset the fact that tyre degradation remains the one puzzle Racing Bulls actually has to solve here.

Source: RacingNews365 (https://racingnews365.com/liam-lawson-identifies-crucial-trick-key-to-potential-bahrain-gp-success)