Formula 1: Liam Lawson to start Sao Paulo sprint race 17th after early exit in qualifying

Liam Lawson will start the Sao Paulo sprint race 17th after an early exit in qualifying. Photo / Red Bull

And then there were three.

The battle for seats on the 2026 Formula One grid within the Red Bull stable has been a humming storyline throughout this season. Now, it takes the spotlight.

With Alpine confirming their decision to re-sign Franco Colapinto for next season, only three seats remain vacant on the grid; all within the Red Bull stable. Only four-time world champion Max Verstappen is confirmed at Red Bull next year, signed through to 2028.

Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar is expected to fill the second Red Bull seat and suggestions are that Arvid Lindblad will be promoted to Racing Bulls from Formula Two, which means the spotlight hanging over Kiwi Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda is getting brighter with every event.

Early in their campaigns at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil this weekend, both failed to impress.

Racing Bulls’ Lawson and Red Bull’s Tsunoda were eliminated in the first session of qualifying for tomorrow’s sprint race, finishing with the 17th and 18th fastest lap times respectively.

Lawson was among the first cars on track in qualifying, running three laps on the medium tyres and posting a lap time of 1m 10.66s before returning to the pits.

He came back out on to the track with a little over two minutes left in the session, but did not do a second flying lap and was left to question what went wrong as he plummeted down the leaderboard.

“The first lap was okay, the car’s been very, very quick today. We came out of the garage for the second run, everyone was slowing down at the pit exit and I ran out of time, basically,” he said.

“We just messed up the timing completely. I don’t really know how, but that basically meant we didn’t do a second lap.

“Honestly, I don’t even think we left it that late. It’s just sometimes people leave big gaps and also with cars doing cooldowns on track, you get caught up in it and we just had really bad timing.

“I’m sure we’ll review it. We definitely didn’t need to take the risk because the car’s been very quick, so it’s pretty frustrating.”

It was a disappointing result for Lawson, particularly after a solid run in free practice one earlier in the day.

With Brazil hosting a sprint race, the grid was limited to one practice session for the weekend. Lawson made the most of his, getting through 36 laps – second to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli’s 37.

McLaren’s Lando Norris topped the session for speed with a 1m 09.975s lap time, just 0.023s ahead of fellow papaya pal Oscar Piastri, with Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg third fastest. Lawson finished the session in promising form with the 11th-fastest time, 0.819s off Norris. Tsunoda crashed early in the session but was able to get back out for the end of the session. He was limited to 20 laps and was slowest on track.

Norris claimed poll for the sprint race with a lap time of 1m 09.243s, 0.097s ahead of Antonelli in second.

For Lawson, the sprint race will likely be more an opportunity to get a feel for things before qualifying and the grand prix.

“We’ll be parked in traffic so we’ll try to learn something, but it’s going to be tough.”

Sao Paulo sprint grid

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

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.