Why Liam Lawson was left unsatisfied with his third consecutive points finish

Monday, 15 June 2026

Liam Lawson was happy with the points but far from satisfied with his eighth place in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

The Kiwi driver pointed to the misfortune of other drivers, who dropped out of the top ten, being the reason for him scoring four points.

Kimi Antonelli, who was running second and the then sixth-placed Charles Leclerc both retired from the race with four laps to go.

In a results-based business like Formula 1, you gratefully grab every point that comes your way.

So when Liam Lawson took home four of them courtesy of his eighth place in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on Monday morning (NZT), he was happy enough but also far from satisfied despite now scoring points in the last three grand prix.

With just four of the 66 laps remaining, the 24-year-old was cruising toward an 11th-place finish. With championship points paid out to the top 10 finishes, Lawson was arguably running in the most annoying position to finish in the field.

But his race quickly turned from frustration to fortune.

Firstly, world championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who was running second, was forced to withdraw due to his Mercedes suffering an electrical shutdown. At an almost identical time, the then sixth-placed Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari suffered a hydraulic failure that sent him off track and limping out of the race.

Lawson’s had some horrendous luck so far in his F1 career, but just like last week in Monaco, the cards again fell in his favour.

Lifted to ninth across the line by their defections, Lawson was later shifted further north, to eighth, when Franco Colapinto was hit with a 10-second time penalty post-race, for failing to slow for a yellow flag.

“It's great that we finished in the points, but if the top guys (Antonelli and Leclerc) had of finished then we wouldn't have,” a pragmatic Lawson said post race.

“We got knocked out by the Alpine's (Pierre Gasly and Colapinto), they were quicker than us today,” he said.

Following the demise of Antonelli, Leclerc and Colapinto, Lawson finished in the same position he qualified in 24 hours earlier.

“Something for us to review, I think we had a good car yesterday (qualifying) but struggled more today,” Lawson said.

Before racing got underway in Barcelona, Lawson lost two championship points when his fifth-place finish at Monaco was downgraded to sixth courtesy of Gasly’s Alpine team winning their right of review with the FIA against his penalties for speeding in the pit lane.

Lawson now sits tenth in the F1 championship with 28 points.

F1 takes a break for this week before racing returns to Austria on June 29 (NZT).

Lawson finished sixth in the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix.

Top 10 finishers in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix

1: Lewis Hamilton, 2: George Russell, 3: Lando Norris, 4: Max Verstappen, 5: Oscar Piastri, 6: Isack Hadjar, 7: Pierre Gasly, 8: Liam Lawson, 9: Arvid Lindblad, 10: Franco Colapinto.