Formula 1: Liam Lawson achieves best sprint qualifying result of the season, to start ninth at Silverstone
Liam Lawson was Formula One’s best of the rest once more, and will start the British Grand Prix sprint race in ninth.
The Kiwi was able to reach the final session of sprint qualifying (SQ3) for just the third time in his career, and continues a streak of starting in the top 10 that dates back to this year’s Canadian Grand Prix.
“The car’s really good, it’s been good all day, we’ve barely changed anything,” Lawson said afterwards.
“We’ll try and get a good start and see what we can get in the first few corners.
“We’re very focused on quali tomorrow, and the race on Sunday.”
Lawson hadn’t reached SQ3 since the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, when he started and finished in 10th.
As the fastest driver outside of the sport’s top four teams – Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull – Lawson begins the British Grand Prix’s first sprint race just one place outside the points, with only the top eight awarded in the shortened format.
By qualifying ninth, Lawson narrowly misses the chance to equal his best sprint qualifying result, when he started eighth in Brazil two years ago.
In good signs for the grand prix, Lawson also showed impressive pace on the medium tyres, but lost time when all drivers switched to softs for SQ3.
Lawson has one points finish in a sprint race this season, where he took seventh in China after he hung on with old tyres.
On a track that he qualified 16th on last year, and was forced to retire after being taken out before the end of the first lap, Lawson’s best lap time of 1m 28.927s was 0.551s off the pace, but a huge 0.440s clear of his teammate Arvid Lindblad in 10th.
Lawson and Lindblad starting next to each other does risk similar scenes from last week’s Austrian Grand Prix, where the British teenager appeared to ignore team orders to attack his teammate. On that occasion, Lawson was still able to finish clear of Lindblad.
Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position in his home race, as his resurgence continues, after posting a best lap of 1m 28.376s. That was 0.011s clear of world championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who has started every sprint race this year in second place.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start on the second row, while Mercedes’ George Russell and McLaren’s Lando Norris are fifth and sixth respectively.
The 17-lap sprint race begins at 11pm on Saturday night (NZT), before grand prix qualifying at 3am on Sunday.
Needing to place above the bottom six to advance out of SQ1, Lawson’s opening lap of 1m 29.990s had him comfortably inside the top 10, with time to improve up his sleeve.
For good measure, Lawson was able to improve his time to 1m 29.850s, and advanced into SQ2 with the eighth-fastest time, 0.577s off the pace set by Hamilton.
After a short break, both Racing Bulls cars were delayed in returning to track for SQ2, and were only able to set one push lap. Lawson improved again to post a 1m 29.067s, and set the fastest time through the final sector, and marched into SQ3 with the fourth-best time – 0.415s clear of elimination.
Into SQ3 for just the third time in his career, and with eight minutes to set as fast a lap as possible, Racing Bulls again left both cars only one shot to post a competitive time, albeit on soft tyres.
In his only chance, Lawson set his best time of the day, 1m 28.927s, but was unable to hit the same heights of SQ2 as other drivers improved behind him.
British Grand Prix sprint qualifying results
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.