Formula 1: Liam Lawson takes top-10 finish in Belgian Grand Prix sprint race

Liam Lawson has taken a top-10 finish in Formula One’s Belgium sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps, albeit without banking any points given the nature of the shorter race.

With the truncated sprint races only awarding points to the top eight drivers, Lawson’s efforts – he finished the sprint race in 10th position – ultimately yielded little for Racing Bulls to show in their constructors championship midfield battle.

Over 15 laps, Lawson held off the challenge of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda behind him, but saw his Racing Bulls teammate and rival Isack Hadjar finish eighth, taking the final point.

The sprint also saw overtaking at a premium, with few passes being completed during the race, and places made up by drivers being forced to retire from the race.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen showed there could still be life in his attempt for a fifth-straight title, as a first-lap overtake on McLaren’s Oscar Piastri gave the Red Bull driver his first sprint victory of the season.

Despite complaints of a problem with his brakes, Verstappen ultimately did enough to take the chequered flag, and bank eight championship points, as Piastri and McLaren teammate Lando Norris took second and third respectively.

Verstappen’s win also sees Red Bull take its first victory without now former team principal Christian Horner, who was replaced in the two week break after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone earlier this month.

Having qualified 11th for the shorter, 15-lap affair Lawson’s starting position was boosted by Alpine having to withdraw Pierre Gasly from the sprint with a mechanical issue.

And as the lights went out, Lawson was able to keep hold of 10th place, despite the challenge of Tsunoda’s Red Bull and George Russell’s Mercedes behind him.

As lap three brought with it the use of the drag reduction system (DRS), Lawson was able to extend his lead on Tsunoda to more than a second, as he hunted down Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber in front of him.

At the halfway point, though, Lawson was still nearly one-second back from Bortoleto, as drivers weighed up the risk of pushing for places, at the expense of their tyres.

By lap nine, Lawson had cut his gap to Bortoleto to less than 0.8s, but was running out of time to attempt any kind of overtake on the Brazilian.

Ultimately, however, Lawson ran out of time without any chance of a pit stop to get the better of Bortoleto, and settled for 10th place – and bank a confidence boost for the full 44-lap race in just over 24 hours time.

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix begins at 2am later on Sunday morning, before the full-distance race itself gets underway at 1am on Monday (NZ time).

Belgium sprint race finishing order

1. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
2. Oscar Piastri - McLaren
3. Lando Norris - McLaren
4. Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
5. Esteban Ocon - Haas
6. Carlos Sainz - Williams
7. Ollie Bearman - Haas
8. Isack Hadjar - Racing Bulls
9. Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber
10. Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls
11. Yuki Tsunoda - Red Bull
12. George Russell - Mercedes
13. Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
14. Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin
15. Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari
16. Alex Albon - Williams
17. Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes
18. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber
19. Franco Colapinto - Alpine

Did not start: Pierre Gasly - Alpine

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