Liam Lawson of New Zealand driving the (30) Visa Cash App RB VCARB 01 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar. Photo / Getty Images
Liam Lawson of New Zealand driving the (30) Visa Cash App RB VCARB 01 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Qatar. Photo / Getty Images
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Liam Lawson will start Monday’s Qatar Grand Prix in 17th, after being eliminated in the first qualifying session at the Losail Circuit.
In his bid to impress Red Bull and earn a place alongside newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen in 2025,Lawson’s hopes took a hit on Sunday (NZ time), as he was unable to progress through the first run.
The Kiwi’s best time of 1m 22.411s was slightly slower than teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who took the final spot in the second qualifying session with a mark of 1m 22.364s, before improving his time to 1m 21.771s in the following session, qualifying to start 14th on the grid.
Lawson was on track to better his initial qualifying mark, and had posted faster times through sector two and sector three before the end of his lap.
After being eliminated, Lawson took exception to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who he alleged deliberately slowed down on the track to affect other drivers behind him. Stroll himself will start 15th after finishing at the bottom of the second qualifying session.
“[Stroll] purposefully slowed up through [turn] nine and ten when he aborted his lap,” Lawson told his team over the radio.
Liam Lawson in the qualifying session for the Qatar Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images
After qualifying was complete, Lawson lamented the build-up of drivers looking to begin their final qualifying laps, and conceded the traffic in the Grand Prix will be difficult to overcome if he’s to score points.
“It’s really small,” he said. “When the margins hundredths of a second, like they are, it’s a little bit frustrating.
“Everyone backed up before the last corner, so we sat idle for 20 odd seconds there. Turn one and turn two, the tyres aren’t there. I couldn’t improve on the lap I did at the start of Q1.
“It’s going to be tough from where we’re starting. We’ll work as hard as we can, but judging from today’s race, it’s going to be difficult.”
Lawson’s RB teammate Tsunoda was eliminated in the second session and will start at 14th on the grid, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez joined Verstappen in the third and final qualifying run for ninth on the grid.
Verstappen had looked to have taken pole position for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix at the start of July. However, the world champion will now start second on the grid, after his pole was stripped following an incident with George Russell, where Verstappen was judged to have driven “unnecessarily slowly”.
Russell will start second on the grid, a week after winning in Las Vegas, while McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri lock out the second row in third and fourth, as they close in on the constructors’ championship ahead of Ferrari.
Piastri led Norris in a McLaren one-two finish in the sprint race earlier on Sunday.
Liam Lawson will start Monday’s Qatar Grand Prix in 17th, after being eliminated in the first qualifying session at the Losail Circuit. Photo / Getty Images
In better news for the Kiwi, though, he was able to outqualify Williams’ Franco Colapinto (19th), who is also understood to be in the running for Red Bull in 2025, provided the now-former world champions can buy him out of his current reserve role.
The three Red Bull drivers, as well as Colapinto, are all vying for the seat next to Verstappen next year, given Perez’s poor form through the back half of the 2024 season.
Earlier, Lawson was unable to turn an impressive qualifying run into points on the shorter, 19-lap sprint race.
On Saturday, the Kiwi beat Perez, Tsunoda and Colapinto to start 10th, but couldn’t hold on to challenge the top eight for points.
The first lap saw Lawson drop from 10th to 16th, which was where the Kiwi would eventually cross the line without any major incident.
“The first lap was a bit of a disaster,” Lawson said post-race. “I don’t really know why, we just had really low grip through the first part of the lap.”
In a boost to Lawson, though, he still managed to beat his fellow contenders Tsunoda (17th), Colapinto (18th) and Perez (20th). Starting from pitlane, Perez’s race took a further hit when he was overtaken on the start line by Colapinto.
Alex Powell is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
