Red Bull junior Lawson spun exiting Turn 2 while challenging team-mate Tomoki Nojiri for the lead around the outside, triggering a major incident that sent the cars of Yuhi Sekiguchi and Tadasuke Makino airborne.
The red flags were shown soon afterwards, but Lawson was able to drive back to the pits despite his Mugen machine sustaining heavy rear-end damage.
Within the time it took for the race to restart, approximately 30 minutes, the #15 crew was able to repair the car and allow Lawson to rejoin at the tail end of the field, although he was given a drive-through penalty for the car being worked on during the stoppage.
The New Zealander, who finally finished out of the points in 13th, was wowed by the speed at which his mechanics worked to get him back into the race.
"I’m so proud of the team for fixing the car like that," Lawson said. "It was amazing, to be honest. I’ve never seen so many people together working like that, it was really cool to watch.
"There was a lot of damage, the suspension was broken, the whole rear wing was gone, the rear crash structure was damaged… we had the car running 30 seconds, maybe 20 seconds before the green flag.
"The car was not perfect obviously, the suspension was still a bit bent, but just to have a car to drive is a massive achievement.
"If there had been a safety car, we could have still have scored points, but it didn’t work out like that. I really wanted to score points to make it up to the team."
Lawson's chief engineer Tomo Koike revealed he had to personally obtain a new rear wing assembly from Team LeMans, which is the official Japanese importer for Super Formula chassis supplier Dallara.
Koike was also keen to pay tribute to chief mechanic Yuki Yagishita for overseeing the frantic repair work, even if he admitted that Lawson's car was not in perfect condition for the restart.
"He [Yagishita] did an incredible job," Koike told Motorsport.com. "The rear wing was completely gone, and the suspension was damaged.
"We had to change the suspension and the rear wing, but we didn’t have a spare rear wing assembly, so I had to run over and buy the part myself from the Team LeMans garage [situated in the far side of the paddock].
"We knew we would get a penalty, but there was a chance of rain or a safety car, so we didn’t want to give up. Liam was missing some rear stability as the car was not completely fixed, but his lap times on used tyres were very good."
It remains to be seen whether Lawson will be given a fresh monocoque for the double-header finale at Suzuka after the Motegi incident.
Nojiri elected to take a new chassis earlier this season, ahead of June's Sugo race, which is permissible under the rules without penalty so long as the change is not made during the race weekend itself.
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