Formula 1 result: Luck goes Liam Lawson’s way as Kiwi claims more points with eighth in Barcelona

Liam Lawson has been upgraded to an eighth placed finish after a post-race penalty for Alpine driver Franco Colapinto hours after the finish of the Barcelona Catalunya-Grand Prix.

Fortune seemed to smile on Lawson in Spain, as late retirements originally saw the Kiwi claim ninth place. Lawson appeared destined to finish 11th and miss the points in Barcelona for the second year in a row, only for two drivers in the top 10 to be forced out of the race in the final laps.

Hours after their race there was more good news for Lawson. Colapinto finished in front of the Kiwi but after the race was noted for failing to slow for a yellow flag which dropped him back from eighth to 10th, meaning the Racing Bulls driver doubled his championship points from two to four.

After sitting in the points for most of the race, Lawson was dealt misfortune of his own when a late virtual safety car on lap 41 of 66 allowed Alpine’s Pierre Gasly a free pit stop, to put the Kiwi and his Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad at a disadvantage.

But with less than five laps remaining, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc suffered engine and steering failures respectively, seeing Lawson climb back inside the top 10, where he’d finish.

“It’s great we finished in the points, but if the top guys had finished, we wouldn’t have,” Lawson said post-race.

“We got knocked out by the Alpine’s, they were quicker than us. It’s something for us to review.

“We had a good car yesterday, and struggled more today.”

The virtual safety car played perfectly into the hands of Lewis Hamilton, who was able to bank an extra pit stop, and cross the line first to take his maiden victory for Ferrari after starting second.

The victory is Hamilton’s 106th in Formula One, his first since Belgium 2024, and Ferrari’s first since Mexico 2024.

Hamilton’s win denied polesitter George Russell of Mercedes a victory, who had to settle for second – but was still able to fight back in his championship battle against Antonelli. McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the podium in third, as the first time three British drivers have claimed the first three places since 1968.

Antonelli’s advantage at the top of the championship has been cut to 41 points from Hamilton, while Russell is 50 points off his teammate.

Lawson’s points finish takes his tally to 28, but he remains 10th in the championship after he was beaten by the pair of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in sixth, and Gasly in seventh.

Racing Bulls teammate Lindblad was also able to cross the finish line in ninth, for the team’s second double-points weekend in a row after the pair managed sixth and seventh in Monaco last week.

Formula One will take a week off, before the season resumes with the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of this month.

With track temperatures exceeding 50C, pit strategy was arguably teams’ biggest weapon over the 66-lap race, with potential for drivers to need three separate stops to keep their tyres in any kind of racing condition.

Starting eighth, Lawson was always going to be under threat from Leclerc in 10th, who only began that far back after putting his Ferrari into the wall in qualifying 24 hours earlier. As the lights went out, the Kiwi was forced wide into turn one, and while he was overtaken by Leclerc right off the bat, Hadjar dropping from sixth to 15th saw Lawson keep hold of eighth place.

With faster cars in front of him, and battle between Lindblad and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg behind him, Lawson was effectively trying to build as big a gap as possible to Hadjar, as the Red Bull began to climb back up the field.

Lawson pitted for the first time on lap 12, and was hampered by a slow stop that took more than six seconds after troubles with the Kiwi’s right rear tyre that saw him emerge in 19th.

Having spent the 2025 season as Racing Bulls teammates, Lawson and Hadjar were reunited after the first set of pit stops, as the Red Bull’s pace advantage told on lap 16 in the battle for 10th.

After Lawson moved back into the points with an overtake on Haas’ Ollie Bearman at turn 13, Lindblad becoming the final driver to pit for the first time on lap 23 left the Kiwi ninth, albeit with Hulkenberg in his mirrors, and a gap smaller than one second be in range of the Audi using overtake mode.

As the battle dragged on and on, with Lawson fortunate to escape punishment for moving under braking into turn one, Hulkenberg’s engine eventually gave out on lap 31, seeing the Kiwi’s closest challenger become Gasly.

Like he’d done to Hulkenberg, Lawson defended from Gasly for long enough to stay ninth, before he stopped for the second time on lap 37 and emerged in 12th, but had been undercut by the second Alpine of Colapinto.

In 2025, Fernando Alonso cost Lawson the final point after a late safety car saw the Spaniard overtake the Kiwi in the dying laps. This time around it was his Aston Martin’s reliability that saw him indirectly do the same thing again, as the virtual safety car gave Gasly a free pit stop, as the slowed field wiped away the advantage Lawson gained from stopping first.

By the time racing resumed, Lawson was just over three seconds back from Colapinto, and looked to have run out of time, only for the retirements ahead of him to see the Kiwi fortunate to finish in the points.

Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix finishing order

Did not finish: Charles Leclerc - Ferrari, Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes, Ollie Bearman - Haas, Alex Albon - Williams, Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin, Nico Hulkenberg - Audi, Valtteri Bottas - Cadillac, Lance Stroll - Aston Martin

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