Liam Lawson is back up to speed at Racing Bulls after three Grands Prix – his French teammate confirms this
After his demotion at Red Bull, Liam Lawson has slotted back into the Racing Bulls team seamlessly. This was confirmed after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by both the New Zealander himself and his teammate Isack Hadjar.
In Jeddah, Lawson qualified ahead of Hadjar for the first time, beating the Frenchman by 0.010 seconds in Q1 and 0.227 seconds in Q2.
He finished the race in eleventh place, just 1.4 seconds behind his teammate. However, a ten-second penalty for an off-track overtaking maneuver against Jack Doohan in turn 2 dropped him behind Fernando Alonso in the final standings.
“He was really, really fast this weekend,” Hadjar said of Lawson. ‘He got the maximum out of the car in qualifying. He’s definitely getting stronger and is now challenging me just as much as Yuki [Tsunoda] used to.’
Like most drivers, Lawson drove a strategy with a first stint on medium tires and then one on the hard tires. The 23-year-old started in twelfth place and then overtook Alonso. After his pit stop, he passed Gabriel Bortoleto, Doohan, Esteban Ocon, and Lance Stroll, but finished the race in a similar position to where he was after the first lap – directly behind Hadjar.
“Unfortunately, my strategy didn’t work today, we spent the whole race overtaking cars,” Lawson lamented. “In the end, we tried to build up a 10-second lead over Fernando – but it wasn’t about points anyway. It’s a shame that things ultimately went against us.”
After struggling in his two outings for Red Bull, Lawson nevertheless confirmed Hadjar’s assessment that he has now settled in at Racing Bulls.
“I think that was our fastest weekend so far – but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough,” he says, adding when asked if he has now settled in completely: ”I think so. Of course, we didn’t quite have the pace of the top teams on Saturday, so we’ll try to improve that for Miami.”
Hadjar, meanwhile, praised his own race as “perfect” after finishing tenth with an alternative strategy (hard tires first, then softer ones). However, he was frustrated that he was stuck behind Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon in the last ten laps despite having fresher, softer tires.
“It was a perfect race, and to get just one point for that is a bit… tough,” the 20-year-old analyzed. ”When I realized after the pit stop that the two Williams were ahead of me, I knew… I was done.”
As for his comeback after the setback in Australia, where he crashed before the race, Hadjar said: “It’s the love of racing. I just love it so much, I’m fully committed. That’s why a hard blow like Melbourne isn’t enough to bring me down – because I love driving and giving my best.”
