Lawson in the F1 points at last

Liam Lawson earned F1 points for Racing Bulls with a hard fought eighth place in the Monaco Prix. The race winner was Lando Norris.

Lawson’s four points are the first real ray of sunshine in what has proven to be a trying F1 season.

He started the race ninth on the grid while teammate Isack Hadjar started in seventh and ended up sixth. The Kiwi aided Hadjar by driving slowly to create space for his teammate to pit safely and emerge in good position.

With 12 points between them, Racing Bulls is now up to seventh in the constructors’ championship, overtaking Aston Martin.

Lawson was upbeat afterwards. “It’s not often you have a plan and it executes perfectly and today to have done that is that great,” he said of the race.

However, he admitted it was difficult to focus on driving tactically for Hadjar, instead of going hard out.

He said the team had prioritised Hadjar as the lead driver after qualifying.

The result is Lawson’s best yet in Formula One racing. He had two ninth placings last year, and finished ninth in Singapore in 2023.

McLaren’s Lando Norris controlled the race from start to finish.

That said, he only resumed the lead on the second-to-last lap. That was when race leader and defending champion Max Verstappen was forced to take his second required pit stop. Delaying it didn’t pay dividends, however, as he finished a distant fourth.

Charles Leclerc, who hails from Monaco, finished second for Ferrari (+3.131sec), with Oscar Piastri of McLaren (+3.658), the points leader, in third.

“It feels amazing” said Norris afterwards. “An amazing weekend with pole, with today. This is what we dream of…as a kid.”

Norris is now just three points behind Piastri in the driver standings, with Verstappen 25 points back.

Norris had Verstappen in front of him and had to fend off Leclerc at the end.

Leclerc said afterwards “At the end of the day, we lost the race yesterday. Lando did a better job and he deserves the win”. I thought we would struggle to be in the top 10 so it has been a good weekend.

“It warms my heart to be at home and have so much support.”

It was the second podium finish this season for Leclerc. He was third in Saudi Arabia last month.

Piastri said he had a tricky weekend. “Practice was messy all the way through. A podium in Monaco – it’s not all bad.

“The margins are so fine. If this is a bad weekend, then it is not going too badly at all.”

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished fifth.