Liam Lawson says his Racing Bull was “in a million pieces” before the start of a Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix that ended with a double top six for the team.

The Faenza team had to address a last-minute systems issue in the build-up to the race, and Lawson’s car was only ready to go just as the pitlane opened for the laps to the grid.

There was also a separate late drama on Arvid Lindblad’s side of the garage, although it was addressed with more time to spare.

The drivers repaid the work of their crews with a solid race, with both staying out for as long as possible while those behind pitted and took advantage of attrition and penalties for cars ahead.

Liam Lawson, who was fifth ahead of Lindblad, admitted that he was worried about not even making the start.

“Yeah, I was,” he said when asked by Crash.net about the pre-race drama.

“I walked up to the garage and saw the car in a million pieces, and I thought I wasn't racing today.

“So it's been a big turnaround, massive effort from the guys and girls to put it together and get us out on track.

“We were managing the Williams behind. In the end, we had quite a bit of pace over them, which was nice.

“So we just extended, and gave ourselves a gap, and then boxed when we needed to.

“And then obviously the red flag meant that we had both cars in a great position for the restart. And then to bring them both home in this order is pretty cool.”

Lawson’s fifth place currently puts him in ninth and “best of the rest” in the world championship, ahead of Pierre Gasly.

“It's been a good start to the season,” he said.

“Even weekends where we've started further away or had difficulties.

“I think, at the moment, as well, with the way that the races are going, quite a lot of people retiring, issues, things like that, for us, we've just been surviving.

“Especially today, to put a car together literally two minutes before the green light, and have no issues in the race, and have a car that was competitive, it's very, very cool.”

Lindblad meanwhile took the full benefit of staying out as others pitted by getting a free tyre change under the late red flag, helping him to claim sixth place.

“Obviously we're very lucky with the timing of the red flag,” he said when asked about his race by Crash.net.

“But I think regardless, it was a very well executed race for myself and the team, so very happy with today.

“When I saw the first safety car, I thought that was a good opportunity to pit, but the team obviously knew, they could add a better picture, so we decided to stay out on both, but then it went to red flag, and we really capitalised on it, and yeah, very grateful to the team, it's a massive result.”

He had spent most of the race biding his time while stuck in traffic.

"I'd been driving around in kind of a bit of no man's land for most of the race, just kind of stuck in the Williams mess, and then I was behind Colapinto for a long part, driving on tyres that were finished.

“So when the red flag came out, that gave me a bit of hope. So I was extremely focused. I was just trying to not make any mistakes; I knew what I had to do so.

“It's long round here, and as you can imagine, these cars are fast, there's no margin for error here. So you need to be 100% locked in for over an hour and a half, and it was tiring.

“But I think I did a good job of that, really trying to stay focused on tyres that really did have nothing left, so that was the biggest challenge today. But I think we executed that well.”