Lawson back on track again

Liam Lawson started third after his best qualifying in F1 and ended the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in fifth place. This was a career best finish for the Kiwi.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified best and recorded another GP victory, with a dominant win over the McLaren opposition. Championship leader, Oscar Piastri, crashed on the opening lap. That saw his Formula One lead over over teammate Lando Norris reduced to 25 points. And there was every chance McLaren would take out the constructors’ title had they prevailed on the day. Norris failed to capitalise on Piatri’s early demise, ending up in seventh position at the end of the race.

McLaren must now wait until the next race in Singapore on October 5 after their poorest scoring weekend of the season.

Meantime Liam Lawson found the going hard up front. Despite being slower than many of this rivals he slipped only two positions to end the race in fifth, his best result yet.

He was overhauled by both Mercedes drivers but managed to hold off Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris during the closing stages of the 51-lap race.

Lawson commented afterwards: “Obviously, it’s a little bit disappointing from where we started. Realistically, we didn’t have the speed to fight with the guys in front.” 

But he added: “It was rewarding after the last 10 or 15 laps”. He now improves to 13th place in the overall standings, with seven rounds still remaining. A spot in the top ten is a distinct possibility if things go his way over the last few races.

Up front though, Verstappen is clearly getting a second wind in the latter part of the year. He led from start to finish and also set the fastest lap. And he has even revived his slim title hopes, now 69 points behind Piastri.

It was a romp for him too, finishing almost 15 seconds clear of George Russell.

Commenting afterwards, he said: “I think this weekend has been incredible for us.” It is his win fourth of the season and the 67th of his career.

“For us to win here again is just fantastic.

“We had clean air all the time and you could then look after your tyres.”

Russell, who started fifth on the grid after sickness over the weekend finished well in second while Carlos Sainz Jr. (below) rounded out the podium.

Sainz said: “It tastes even better than my first ever podium.” He had started out on the front row, qualifying second.

The main drama of the race happened on the opening lap, with Piastria jumping the gun from ninth position, braking and falling back to P20 before understeering into the wall and out of the race soon after.

The errors ended the Australian’s record of being the only driver to score in every race this season. In fact, he has put runs on the board in the last 34 races. And he hasn’t failed to finish a race since his 2023 rookie season.

“Not my finest moment,” was how he described it.

“I just anticipated the start too much.”