For the second Formula One race in a row, Liam Lawson has qualified inside the top 10, and will start ninth at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Again, the Kiwi reached the third and final session of qualifying (Q3), as he continues his resurgence with Racing Bulls, the sister team of former world champions Red Bull.
Lawson’s best time of 1m 15.821s - while not his fastest of the weekend - was 0.449s off pole position, surprisingly set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, as world championship leader Oscar Piastri settled for second, with McLaren teammate Lando Norris in third.
The Kiwi’s effort was also 0.094s better than his teammate, Isack Hadjar, who will start 10th, while senior Red Bull stablemate Max Verstappen qualified eighth.
On all three previous occasions he’s started inside the top 10 this season - Monaco, Austria and Belgium last week - Lawson has driven home for a points finish.
Hungary also marks just the second time Lawson has bettered Hadjar in qualifying, with the only previous time resulting in his career-best finish of sixth in Austria.
And, as was the case with Monaco earlier this year when Lawson finished eighth, Hungary’s tight nature and low speed corners makes overtaking increasingly difficult.
“It’s good to be in Q3,” said Lawson post-qualifying. “To be honest, it’s been quite a difficult weekend so far.
“It’s good to at least be in the [top] 10, but to be honest, it wasn’t an amazing lap in general.
“The conditions changed a bit through quali, and kind of went away from us. It’s a bit of a shame, we missed out on a couple of spots there. But it was tricky conditions for everyone.
“The car’s been very good recently, the team’s been doing a very good job. It’s nice to drive.
“We had decent long run pace. Qualifying is very important here. It was decent today, but tomorrow is going to be a very long race.”
In the build-up to this weekend’s grand prix, Lawson himself highlighted qualifying as the area he needs to improve the most.
As the clock began ticking in Q1, none of the 20 drivers immediately left their garage to set an early lap time, even with the threat of rain, as clouds came in to help cool the track down from over 50 degrees.
With just over 12 minutes left in the session, Lawson emerged from pit lane, and set a first timed lap of 1m 16.350s, good enough for ninth place at the time, with drivers still yet to cross the finish line on their starting efforts.
By the time all 20 drivers had set a timed lap, Lawson was 14th, and 0.225s clear of the drop zone. When he returned for his last laps of Q1, Lawson’s gap to elimination had been cut to 0.119s, with the cooling track seeing more and more drivers improve on their times.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly both improved their times, which pushed Lawson down to 17th by the time he started his final lap, as the Kiwi improved his lap time to 1m 15.849s to advance in 14th, at the expense of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, by just 0.50s.
Into Q2, and there was no delay in seeing cars immediately leave the pits, as rain started to fall over parts of the track.
With that in mind, Lawson’s first lap in Q2, 1m 16.156s, was enough for ninth by the time the 15 remaining drivers had set their first lap, 0.045s clear of elimination, ahead of both Ferrari cars.
As the session wound down, and the rain over turn six dissipated, Lawson was one of the first cars to return for his last laps of Q2. That, though, left him vulnerable to the track improving for the drivers who had started later than he had.
Those fears didn’t eventuate, though, as Lawson’s final Q2 time of 1m 15.630s saw him advance to Q3 for the second week in succession, safe by 0.057s, and 0.072s clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in 12th.
With 12 minutes to push for as high a place on the starting grid as possible, Lawson managed 1m 16.649s on his first timed lap, which while slower than his best effort in Q2, was enough for seventh, before improving for one last time gave him ninth.
The Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 1am on Monday (NZ time), as the final race before Formula One’s month-long summer break.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.