Liam Lawson in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull
Liam Lawson showed his class in a wet and wild qualifying session for Formula One’s Las Vegas Grand Prix and will start sixth on the grid.
For the eighth time this season, Lawson reached the third and final qualifying session (Q3) at a time when Red Bull are still to announce – publicly or privately – their driver pairings for 2026.
On a circuit where Lawson qualified 15th and finished 16th last year, the Kiwi kept improving throughout the session and was never at risk of an early exit.
“I’m pretty happy,” said Lawson. “It’s been a tough qualifying session.
“It’s crazy for us to be using the extreme wets, we never use this tyre. It just shows how slippery it was today.
“We did miss the last lap by like one or two seconds; we had the opportunity to be even higher up. But [I’m] obviously very happy with the performance today.”
Securing sixth on the grid means Lawson will make successive top 10 starts after qualifying and finishing seventh in Brazil earlier this month.
Only once this season has Lawson qualified in the top 10 and not scored points, with the exception being when he was taken out by Williams’ Carlos Sainz in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lawson has also outqualified Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar, who will start eighth but has gained momentum to be promoted to Red Bull’s senior ranks next year.
In comparison, Lawson’s rival for a 2026 Racing Bulls seat, Yuki Tsunoda, will start Sunday’s race in 19th after suffering his sixth Q1 exit since replacing the Kiwi at Red Bull two races into 2025.
McLaren’s Lando Norris took pole position on a weekend where he can take another step towards the Formula One world championship. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start alongside Norris, while McLaren’s other driver, Oscar Piastri, will start fifth next to Lawson.
With rain falling and track temperatures as low as 12C, slippery conditions led to a treacherous affair, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton qualifying last but Lawson’s composure in the wet stood out.
Taking to the track in Q1, Lawson’s first attempt to put in a timed lap was fruitless as the Kiwi was forced to change his intermediate tyres to full wets.
The conditions meant only half of the drivers had set a time when the 10-minute warning sounded. Lawson’s first effort, 2m 2.407s, led to him temporarily jumping to third on the leaderboard, albeit with the track improving underneath.
With the improving conditions Lawson continued to better his time – first to 2m 0.496s and then 1m 58.188s – as teams faced a nervy wait to try to get competitive times in before the clock hit zero.
By the time all 20 drivers had posted a lap, Lawson had fallen into the drop zone and was 0.610s away from advancing into Q2.
With close to two minutes remaining, Lawson improved his time again and his 1m 55.747s moved him 0.838s clear of an early exit.
As the clock counted down to its final minute, Haas’ Ollie Bearman hit the wall at turn 14 to trigger a yellow flag, before Williams’ Alex Albon did the same at turn 16.
Lawson improved once more, putting in a lap of 1m 54.828s, and advanced as the 10th fastest time, 1.392s clear of elimination.
After a brief delay for marshals to repair the barriers after Albon’s crash, Lawson wasted no time in Q2, again on full wet tyres, even though the rain had stopped.
His first time in Q2, 1m 53.722s, shot him up to fourth and more than two seconds clear of elimination once all remaining drivers had set a time.
His second lap in Q2, 1m 52.119s, put Lawson first as the improving track had drivers weighing up whether to switch to intermediate tyres.
At the two-minute warning, Lawson had gone even faster, setting a 1m 51.939s to sit 0.912s clear of elimination as drivers began their final stints. As was the case with Q1, Lawson advanced without needing to go faster – even if he did to 1m 51.621s, setting the sixth-best time of the session and progressing with 1.160s to spare.
Into Q3 for the eighth time this year, Lawson’s first lap of 1m 52.074s was enough for fourth place by the time all drivers had set their first efforts.
With two minutes to go, Lawson had fallen to fifth, despite improving his time to 1m 49.367, giving the Kiwi one final lap to set his best mark of the session. But despite going even faster, to 1m 49.062s, other drivers pushed Lawson down to his starting position.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix begins at 5pm on Sunday (NZT).
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.