Formula 1: Broken gearbox wipes out Liam Lawson’s Barcelona practice session

Liam Lawson has again been hit by reliability issues on day one of a Formula One grand prix, suffering a broken gearbox in Barcelona.

The Kiwi had been sitting comfortably inside the top 10 on the timesheets in the day’s second practice session (FP2), only to complain of a gearbox issue after leaving the Racing Bulls garage, with more than 40 minutes remaining.

“Oh no, mate, the engine’s died just as I’ve left the box,” Lawson was heard telling his race engineer. “It’s off, I have nothing. The engine’s stopped, I have no gears. The gearbox broke.

That gearbox failure limited Lawson to just seven laps in FP2, for a best time of 1m 16.967s – good enough for fifth at the time of his retirement and 1.243s off the early pace.

While he was able to get back on track for the final minutes of FP2, Lawson would finish the session with the 13th best time, 1.541s off the pace.

Frustratingly, reliability issues are beginning to pile up for Racing Bulls. Lawson’s battery didn’t fire off the startline in Melbourne, before his entire first day in Canada was scratched by a hydraulic leak in Canada.

Teammate Arvid Lindblad, meanwhile, wasn’t able to start in Canada, after his opening day in China was also impacted.

Racing Bulls will hope to fix Lawson’s issue before Sunday morning (NZT), with qualifying to begin at 2am.

It capped a frustrating day for Lawson all-round, after also learning that his career-best equalling fifth-place at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix had been lost, after a successful appeal by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly to reinstate the podium he lost after being penalised after the chequered flag.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the fastest driver of the day, topping the timesheets with a lap of 1m 15.426s, just 0.009s clear of second place, Mercedes’ George Russell.

Promisingly for Lawson, the other three Red Bull-powered cars all finished inside the top 10 - Max Verstappen sixth, Lindblad seventh and Isack Hadjar in 10th.

Earlier, Lawson impressed in the weekend’s first session, recording the seventh-fastest time of FP1, recording a best lap of 1m 17.472s.

Admittedly with seven drivers sitting out for rookies through Formula One’s young driver programme – including one from each of the top four teams – Lawson’s best effort was 1.109s off the pace set by Russell, who recorded 1m 16.363s.

The Kiwi did have a shaky moment, when he was impeded by Williams’ Carlos Sainz at turn 10 while on a push lap, however the Racing Bulls avoided making any contact.

Lawson’s time was 0.332s quicker than Lindblad, who finished ninth, 1.441s off the leader.

Leonardo Fornaroli was the best-placed of the seven rookies, clocking the fifth-best time in Norris’ McLaren, 0.853s off the pace, while Audi’s Paul Aron was sixth, a huge 0.888s off senior driver Gabriel Bortoleto.

Williams’ Luke Browning wasn’t afforded any time on track, as an electrical fault kept him in the garage in Alex Albon’s place.

Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.