Liam Lawson believes Yuki Tsunoda's significant qualifying crash at Imola compromised his own session, contributing to his Q1 exit.
Lawson qualified 16th and will move up to 15th after Franco Colapinto's penalty. However, the Racing Bulls driver felt he couldn't set a representative lap time due to Tsunoda's early incident and Colapinto's late crash in Q1.
His teammate Isack Hadjar qualified ninth, ahead of both Ferraris, highlighting the pace Lawson felt his car possessed but couldn't fully utilize.
"I was heavily compromised with the first red flag, and then during the lap on the second red flag," Lawson stated. "But it is just one of those things, obviously we are all out there to try and make the most of these situations, but today we were on the receiving end. We definitely had a fast car.
"It's been quick all weekend, we went different ways to learn some stuff, we learned a lot, which was cool, and we applied it to the car, which worked well. The first lap we were quite competitive, but didn't get the shot."
Regarding Tsunoda's accident, Lawson commented that drivers "pay the price" on challenging circuits like Imola.
"We all as drivers like this track, we like driving on old school circuits with high-risk, very high commitment," he said. "You're placing your wheel on the edge of the white line when there is grass next to it in so many places, and you go into qualifying, take that last 1% and sometimes, this is the price you pay.
"You never want to see a crash like that, and we are glad he is alright, but I guess that is what can happen on a circuit like this."