Liam Lawson Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying third, Digi Mart USA News (Interlagos, Brazil): At a time when his Formula One future is largely out of his hands, qualifying third for the Brazilian Grand Prix is as strong a statement as Liam Lawson could have made. In a chaotic qualifying session, delayed by more than an hour by torrential rain at Interlagos, the Kiwi earned his 10th top-10 start of the year and potentially his most important one in the context of his future in the sport.
While Lawson’s best lap time of 1m 28.321s was only enough for fifth place in the final stage of qualifying (Q3), grid penalties to Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, five and 10 places respectively, promoted the Kiwi to the second row for the second time in his career. Starting third equals the best qualifying position of his career, achieved at last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he also earned his best result of fifth place.
As another nudge to Red Bull’s decision-makers, Lawson was the organization’s fastest car across its two teams. His closest teammate, Isack Hadjar, qualified seventh but will start fifth.
Lawson’s best lap was 0.851s off the pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris on pole, while newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli starts alongside him on the front row.
The session was marked by chaos on track. A red flag less than two minutes into Q1 prompted a serious rethink of strategies for all teams.
Once the session resumed close to 90 minutes later, drivers faced an effective shootout as the track dried and favored cars that completed their laps as late as possible. Lawson was never in real danger of elimination and advanced to Q2 in seventh place with more than 1.2 seconds in hand.
In a major result for Racing Bulls, neither Alpine car escaped Q1, with Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly qualifying 17th and 18th respectively. Lawson’s chances improved when Max Verstappen did not return to the track after his 30-place grid penalty, freeing up a place in the top 10.
Once conditions cleared, Lawson switched to intermediate tyres and posted a lap of 1m 27.049s to move into second, just 0.304s off the pace of Russell as session leader.
Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad stopped on track at turn five and was eliminated in 12th. Q2 was then halted when Haas debutant Rafael Camara hit the barriers, triggering a red flag with less than a minute left.
As more rain fell between Q2 and Q3, Lawson could not better his second-part time but kept his composure to equal his career best, another mark in favor of his case to remain in Formula One next year and beyond.
