Liam Lawson will start Formula One’s Mexican Grand Prix in 15th, after the Kiwi failed to set a time in the second session of qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
While Lawson had progressed into the second stage of qualifying (Q2) with the sixth best time, the Racing Bulls driver was not able to complete a flying lap, and was eliminated as the last-placed of the drivers.
The Kiwi’s radio to his race engineer, Ernesto Desiderio, heard Lawson complaining of low grip - a common issue in Mexico due to the high altitude impacting the downforce teams are able to apply to their cars.
“We had a fast car today,” Lawson said post-qualifying. “Q1 was very good, I just struggled with the balance in Q2.
“We were trying to chase it through the runs, we went a little bit too far in Q2. We decided to abort the second lap and try a used tyre at the end. It wasn’t the right move.
“[The car] has been quite quick, it’s just very close. It’s going to be hard to overtake, for sure.
“But we’ll see what we get tomorrow.”
Only time will tell how costly those two aborted laps will be for Lawson. The only saving grace was the fact that Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in Q2, after posting the 11th best time, 0.211s back from teammate Max Verstappen.
Lawson and Tsunoda are widely understood to be competing for the same seat at Racing Bulls in 2026, with Red Bull’s senior adviser Dr Helmut Marko confirming the Mexican Grand Prix is the last race before the self-imposed deadline.
As the race for the world championship enters its final weeks, McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed pole position, with a best lap of 1m 15.586s. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc missed out on a third career pole in Mexico by just 0.262s, and will start second.
World championship leader Oscar Piastri could only set the eighth-fastest time, but will start seventh after Williams’ Carlos Sainz carried a five-place grid penalty from Austin last week.
Having cut his deficit at the top of the championship to 40 points with a win in Austin, Verstappen will start fifth in his bid for five consecutive titles, while Hadjar starts ninth in his bid for the second Red Bull seat in 2026.
Taking to the track midway through the first stage of qualifying (Q1), Lawson’s first effort was his best of the weekend, when he crossed the line in 1m 17.458s to temporarily move third.
By the time all 20 drivers had posted their first lap, Lawson had fallen to 11th, but was just 0.211s clear of the drop zone - a spot held by Tsunoda.
As he returned for his final laps with more than six minutes remaining, Lawson broke the 1m 16s barrier for the first time in the weekend to move to third - 0.669s clear - but faced a wait of more than three minutes to see if he would advance.
Lawson’s lap of 1m 16.961s was enough for sixth in Q1, as Hadjar topped the standings with a lap of 1m 16.733s, and Tsunoda snuck into Q2 in 13th, by 0.178s.
At the start of the second stage, Lawson and Hadjar were the first two cars on track. But while Hadjar went top in Q2, Lawson aborted his first flying lap after running wide at turn four and returned to the garage.
That left Lawson last of the 15 remaining drivers, as the only one yet to set a time before the final runs.
But while the Kiwi was on course to temporarily go past Oscar Piastri in the top 10 - with 0.030s up his sleeve at the end of sector two - the Kiwi was again forced to abort his lap, and finished the session without setting a time.
Earlier, in his final attempt at practice for the weekend, Lawson continued to improve on the pace he showed on Saturday, and set the 11th best time for the second session in a row.
The Kiwi added a final 20 laps of preparation on the Mexican circuit, and posted his fastest time of the weekend - at that point - of 1m 17.522s.
That saw Lawson 0.919s back from session leader Norris, who posted 1m 16.633s. Lawson’s time was 0.156s back from Hadjar in eighth, and 0.137s behind Tsunoda in ninth.
Lawson’s preparation for the weekend had been hamstrung by the fact he was forced to sit out Free Practice One, as part of Formula One regulations that saw Racing Bulls reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa take his place.
The Mexican Grand Prix begins at 9am on Monday NZT.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.