Formula 1: Liam Lawson outside top 10 in both Friday practice sessions for Hungarian Grand Prix

Liam Lawson will be hoping his times in Friday practice for Formula One’s Hungarian Grand Prix aren’t a sign of things to come, as the Kiwi sat outside the top 10 in both sessions.

Fresh from eighth at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix – his third points finish in his past six races – Lawson could only manage 14th in free practice one (FP1) and 15th in free practice two (FP2) on the first day at the Hungaroring.

However, considering teams and drivers tend to spend Friday doing more than just setting the fastest times, Lawson was able to log 58 laps across both sessions and completed stints on all three tyre compounds.

While 14th and 15th placings aren’t much to write home about, Lawson’s displays saw him just 0.226s off the top 10 in FP1 and 0.292s outside in FP2.

“It’s been a little bit tricky for us,” said Lawson. “It’s fun to drive, it’s a very cool track, very full on.

“But with how small it is, with traffic management ... it’s quite tough. We have a bit of work to do as well.

“[We have] one more session tomorrow morning, and we’ll try and piece things together.

“It’s very close, as always, at the moment. If we can find some small things it’ll make a big difference in terms of where we are.

“It’s been a tricky day to try and piece things together and that’s what we’re going to try and do tomorrow.”

Lawson’s best lap time of the day, 1m 16.812s, was 1.188s off that of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who topped FP1 and FP2 with his mark of 1m 15.624s. Norris’ best time was 0.291s quicker than his teammate, championship leader Oscar Piastri.

In comparison, Lawson’s Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar managed fourth in FP1 and eighth in FP2, where his best effort was 0.385s quicker than the Kiwi.

As a sign of how unrepresentative times on Friday can be, Lawson’s best effort in FP2 was 0.021s back from reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who finished 14th.

While Lawson does boast plenty of experience at Hungary across his junior career, the Kiwi’s best result at the Hungaroring is sixth, achieved in the 2022 Formula Two sprint race.

Lawson was one of the last drivers to set a lap time in FP2, but was on the periphery of the top 10 after a best effort of 1m 17.443s on medium tyres.

Once he switched to softs in the final half hour of FP2, though, Lawson posted a 1m 16.812s to clear the mark he’d set earlier in the day in FP1, 1m 17.184s, having got through the session using hard and soft tyres, and he continued bettering his times until his final stint.

Lawson’s FP1 mark was 1.132s short of Norris’ session-leading time of 1m 16.052s, as just 1.412s separated first and 19th on the timesheet.

Piastri was just 0.019s shy of Norris, as the two McLaren cars again showed they’re the ones to beat over the weekend, with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari a further 0.217s back.

However, the Kiwi was 0.503s back from Hadjar, as the Racing Bulls teammates nearly collided at turn eight before taking evasive action just in time.

Having not scored a point in a grand prix since Spain, Hadjar managed to set the fourth-fastest time, 1m 16.681s, to finish 0.629s off Norris.

Lawson’s time was also 0.209s clear of Yuki Tsunoda, who replaced him at Red Bull just two races into 2025.

The 10 teams will return to the Hungaroring on Saturday night (NZT) for FP3, before qualifying in the early hours of Sunday morning.

However, it is still to be seen how representative practice times will be in Sunday’s qualifying, given the session will be held at 4pm local time, between the window in which FP1 and FP2 were staged the day before.

The Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 1am on Monday morning.

Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.