Liam Lawson at the Miami Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull
A first-corner collision ruined Liam Lawson‘s Miami Grand Prix, as the New Zealand driver was forced to retire with damage to his car.
In a transtasman tussle with Australian Jack Doohan, Lawson’s Racing Bulls car made contact with the Alpine at turn one, as race engineer Ernesto Desidero was heard telling the Kiwi that he had sustained damage to his floor.
At the time of the incident, Lawson was the lead car, meaning Doohan had responsibility to give him room. For his part, Doohan suffered a tyre puncture, before being forced to retire from the race altogether.
But that damage, in combination with being spun 180 degrees, left Lawson with too much to do and saw Racing Bulls eventually pull the pin after 38 laps.
“I don’t really know what happened,” said Lawson post-race. “I had a really good launch.
“A gap opened up through the middle into turn one, and I took it. Then I felt a hit from the side into turn one. I don’t know what happened, I need to watch it back.
“But it destroyed the floor and then we’ve had to retire. It’s not a nice feeling.
“You know you’re in for a long afternoon. We’re waiting for rain, it’s drizzling and giving you the tiniest bit of hope. But the car was broken anyway.
“It was going to be a tough one regardless.”
The incident also does Doohan no favours, with increasing speculation he will lose his Alpine seat to Argentinian Franco Colapinto before the end of the 2025 season.
“I don’t want to comment, I haven’t seen the replay yet,” said Doohan post-race. “As we all know, nothing would be intentional.
“Unfortunately, we got squeezed there. Maybe he had a car on his outside. We just have to look into it, because it didn’t end well for me, and I don’t think it helped him out as well.”
At the front of the grid, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri sealed his fourth win of the season, and third in succession, after qualifying fourth. The result sees the Australian extend his world championship lead even further, while teammate Lando Norris took second place.
Now more than a quarter of the way through the 2025 season, Piastri has 131 points and Norris has 115, as McLaren consolidated their place at the top of the constructors championship, and hold a 105 point advantage over Mercedes.
So dominant were the two McLaren cars, the gap to the third-placed car was close to 40 seconds.
Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium in third place, after benefiting from a virtual safety car to overtake world champion Max Verstappen in the pits.
Verstappen, meanwhile, continued Miami’s record of a driver never winning from pole position, forced to settle for fourth place and losing further ground on Piastri.
Lawson can take solace from the fact that Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar also finished outside the points, taking 11th place after finishing more than five seconds back from Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who was penalised for speeding in the pits, but held on to take 10th.
The Lawson-Doohan incident capped a miserable weekend for Lawson, at a time when he needs confidence above all else after his mid-season demotion from Red Bull back to junior side Racing Bulls.
On Sunday, the Kiwi looked to have sealed not only his first points of the year, but the best result of his career with a seventh-placed finish in the sprint.
However, after an inquiry by race stewards following a collision with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Lawson was hit with a five-second penalty, demoting him to a 13th-placed finish.
A few hours later, in qualifying, Lawson was dogged by an issue to his power unit that cost him vital time and ultimately scuppered any hopes of reaching the top 10.
Starting 15th, Lawson wasn’t able to recreate his same first-lap success from Sunday’s sprint, where he overtook five cars at the first corner. Instead, the collision with Doohan ended any chance of salvaging points from the Grand Prix.
After a virtual safety car, Lawson was able to continue racing, albeit more than 20 seconds back from Pierre Gasly in 18th.
Still, with more than 50 laps remaining and the threat of rain overhead, Lawson attempted to close the gap to Gasly, before the Frenchman gained a place when Alonso spun.
But as Alonso continued to gain ground on Gasly, Lawson only dropped further and further back. While the gap to the Aston Martin was around five seconds at the time of the incident, it increased to more than 10 seconds by the start of the 17th lap.
As cars began to take their first pit stops, Lawson was unable to make up any significant ground to the drivers in front of him.
On lap 29, Lawson made up a place back when Haas’ Ollie Bearman left the track and was forced to retire with a power unit issue.
The resulting virtual safety car saw Lawson head for the pits and fit a set of medium tyres, emerging 30 seconds back from Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
A car issue for Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber had Lawson climb another place with another virtual safety car, before the Brazilian became the third driver to retire.
Lawson joined them five laps later, as Racing Bulls finally put the Kiwi out of his misery on lap 38, as television crews captured a hole on one of his side pods that was responsible for the disappointing race.
Formula One will now have a week’s break before returning for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, raced in the Italian city of Imola.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.
McLaren won't change their approach despite Norris' crash in Canada.