Formula 1: Liam Lawson solid in Belgian Grand Prix practice, given qualifying boost
Liam Lawson has had a solid opening day at Formula One’s Belgian Grand Prix, posting a top 10 time in practice on top of receiving a leg up for qualifying.
On a track where he finished eighth last year, and banked four points for his weekend’s work, Lawson logged 40 laps on the opening day at Spa-Francorchamps, posting the 10th-fastest time in the day’s second session (FP2).
Lawson’s best lap of 1m 47.434s was enough for 10th in the day’s second session, having also been 11th in the first (FP1).
Any chance to improve that time at the end of FP2 was halted by a late red flag, triggered when Alpine’s Pierre Gasly hit the wall at the turn 12 chicane, which left the track covered in debris.
“We’ve had a good Friday, with both cars in the top 10,” Lawson said. “Spa feels quite different this year.
“We’ve been focused on optimising the car and understanding the best way to manage our battery and energy deployment.
“We’ll work on that overnight, and hopefully come back stronger tomorrow. The car’s been performing well so far, so the focus now is fine-tuning everything and making the most of the package we have.”
World championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes was the fastest driver on Friday, setting a best time of 1m 45.944s. That was 0.190s clear of second, McLaren’s Lando Norris.
All up, the day proved to be productive for Red Bull’s two teams, with all four cars consistently in the top 10. With speculation over an end-of-season exit, Max Verstappen topped FP1 and was third in FP2, while Isack Hadjar was also in the top 10 twice.
Lawson was twice bettered by Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad, who was inside the top 10 in both sessions, with his FP2 time 0.140s quicker, after also receiving a cooling system upgrade for the weekend.
However, regardless of results in practice, Lawson’s chances of starting inside the top 10 in Monday morning’s grand prix received a boost, after the pair of Hadjar and Norris were handed grid penalties for changing engine components.
Norris will start 10 places down on where he qualifies, while Hadjar will be at the back of the grid regardless, after both were forced to fit parts outside of the season’s allowed allocations.
Earlier, in FP1, Lawson’s best lap of 1m 48.432s was 1.362s off the pace, and had him just 0.026s outside the top 10 from the first hour of the weekend.
With Red Bull’s Ford engine widely considered the best on the grid, Verstappen was the best on display in the opening session, and topped the timesheets with a lap of 1m 47.070s, 0.145s clear of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
That mark from the four-time world champion saw the first FP1 session this year that wasn’t topped by a Mercedes or Ferrari car.
In fact, Lawson was the only Red Bull car outside the top 10, as Hadjar finished fourth, while Lindblad was ninth, off the pace by 0.252s and 1.164s respectively.
Teams will get one more practice session on Saturday night, before qualifying gets underway at 3am on Sunday morning (NZT).
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.