A first-lap tangle with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended any hopes of a points finish for Liam Lawson, who settled for 16th at Formula One’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Starting in the top 10 for the eighth time this season, Lawson came wheel to wheel with the Australian at turn one, and suffered front wing damage that forced him into the pits, too far back to recover.
Neither driver faced further punishment from the stewards for the collision.
“Sorry, guys, that was on me,” Lawson said to his race engineer.
“[I] didn’t meant to do that, so apologies. It didn’t need to happen. Honestly, I wasn’t trying to push the braking. They just checked up, I wasn’t expecting it, so sorry.”
Not helping Lawson’s cause was the fact Racing Bulls put the Kiwi on a two-stop strategy, forcing him back down the grid, on a cold track, with a new set of tyres.
The only other driver to complete a two-stop strategy was Lawson’s 2026 seat rival, Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull, who finished two places ahead of the Kiwi in 14th.
Coincidentally, finishing 16th sees Lawson in the exact same place where he did one year earlier. In that instance, though, Lawson qualified 15th, not sixth.
At the front of the grid, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was able to keep his slim chances of a fifth straight world title alive, by claiming his sixth win of 2025, this one by more than 20 seconds.
The four-time champion was able to go from second to first, as title rival Lando Norris couldn’t convert his pole position into a chequered flag, as he ran wide at turn one trying to defend his advantage.
Norris meanwhile settled for second, even as his advantage over Verstappen was cut to just 35 points, with just two grands prix and a sprint race to go this year.
Piastri finished fourth, but fell to third in the drivers standings as his world championship push realistically ended in the desert.
Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium in third place, adding to his victory in Las Vegas last year. Meanwhile, Lawson’s Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar finished eight, the same place he qualified in.
Starting sixth after an impressive display in qualifying 24 hours earlier, Lawson made contact with Piastri at turn one, and was overtaken by Hadjar in the process.
Lawson was boxed between George Russell’s Mercedes in front of him, Piastri to his right and Hadjar behind him, leaving the Racing Bulls with nowhere to go as he hit the McLaren.
And while the Kiwi kept hold of sixth place temporarily, Lawson suffered damage that ended any chance for points as he dropped down places as the lap wore on.
That damage saw Lawson lose downforce, and fall from sixth to 16th by the end of the second lap, as a virtual safety car was called to clean debris from the opening corner.
By the time that virtual safety car ended on lap four, Lawson was 18th, ahead of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Lance Stroll, both forced to retire after an incident of their own, and behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who fell from 10th to 17th.
Lawson was able to close the gap to Gasly in front of him to less than a second, and moved up a place on lap 14 when Williams’ Alex Albon pitted for a front wing change after colliding with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
That Albon-Hamilton collision left more debris on the track, and triggered another virtual safety car on lap 16.
Lawson, though, began to complain of a lack of grip, as the damage to his car in combination with the cold track temperature made it close to impossible to attack Gasly.
On lap 26, Lawson gained another place when Gasly’s Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto pitted, and then another on lap 28 when Tsunoda did the same.
Those places were lost when Lawson pitted for the second time, though, as the Kiwi went from 15th to the back of the grid, with 21 laps to try and work his way back up, with a set of new, hard tyres.
Needing to go 21 laps on that third set of tyres, Lawson was five seconds back from Albon – who had a five-second penalty for clashing with Hamilton.
That battle never eventuated, as Albon pitted and then retired on lap 36 to see Lawson climb to 17th, as the Kiwi closed the gap on Colapinto, and then overtook the Alpine on lap 41.
As the chequered flag approached, Lawson had less than 10 laps to close a 10 second gap to Tsunoda, if he wanted to retake 15th.
But Lawson ultimately ran out of time to advance higher, as Tsunoda was able to pass Gasly, and put a two-car buffer between his 2026 seat rival.
Formula One continues next weekend with the Qatar Grand Prix.
Did not finish: Alex Albon - Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber, Lance Stroll - Aston Martin
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.