Liam Lawson's Strong Qualifying Performance at Spanish Grand Prix
Liam Lawson walked back into the paddock with mixed emotions – satisfied, frustrated, and very clearly still in the shop window.
On what is expected to be his final qualifying session in a Red Bull for now, the Kiwi dragged the car into Q3 again and will start inside the top 10 for the Spanish Grand Prix, a performance that did plenty to underline his case for a full-time return in 2027.
“We were very competitive through the first part of quali,” he said afterwards. “Unfortunately it just fell away from us in Q3. Everybody else made quite a big step in Q3, and we just missed out. It’s a shame, I think we were very competitive today.”
Competitive is the right word. This was a qualifying hour that started with Lawson right at the sharp end.
Norris on pole, Antonelli inches behind
At the front, Lando Norris delivered when it mattered most. The McLaren driver, who spent much of second practice stuck in the garage with a gearbox issue, hooked up a superb lap of 1m 31.824s to snatch pole position.
He edged world championship leader Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011s – a blink, a wobble, the width of a tyre. That was all that separated them.
Max Verstappen, Lawson’s temporary Red Bull teammate, had to settle for third. His best lap left him 0.140s adrift of Norris but 0.352s clear of Lawson, underlining just how fine the margins were in a Q3 that suddenly exploded in pace.
Behind them, Arvid Lindblad kept his steady run going with another top-10 start, clocking the 10th fastest time. Yuki Tsunoda, the man who has replaced Lawson at Racing Bulls, will line up 15th.
Lights go out in Barcelona at 1am Monday (NZT). The grid is tight. The stakes for Lawson are tighter.
Lawson lights up Q1
Lawson’s evening really came alive in Q1.
One of the last drivers to post a time, he punched in a 1m 33.316s that sent him straight to the top of the timesheets and left him 3.728s clear of the drop zone once the field – minus Haas rookie Ollie Bearman, ruled out after his crash in final practice – had completed their first laps.
He didn’t need to go again. Safe, secure, through.
He went again anyway.
On his second run, Lawson found a fraction more, trimming his time to 1m 33.310s and cruising into Q2 as the third-fastest car. It was a statement – not spectacular on the stopwatch, but quietly authoritative.
The home fans had far less to cheer. In a brutal twist for the Spanish crowd, both Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso failed to escape Q1. The volume dipped; the tension didn’t.
Calm progress in Q2
Q2 brought more of the same from Lawson: late to the party, but right in the mix.
Again leaving it until the latter stages, he opened with a 1m 32.874s that put him fourth and a comfortable 0.924s clear of elimination. There was never any real sense he was in danger.
He still found more.
A tidy 1m 32.780s on his next effort nudged him further up and sealed his passage into Q3 for the second time in three races with Red Bull. For a driver parachuted into one of the most scrutinised seats in the sport, that consistency matters.
Q3 sting as rivals step up
The final session told a different story.
Lawson’s first lap in Q3, a 1m 32.633s, left him eighth. Solid, but vulnerable. He improved again on his last run, yet the rest of the field suddenly found another gear. Times tumbled. Positions shuffled.
Lawson stayed eighth.
The Kiwi had been one of qualifying’s standout performers through Q1 and Q2, but as he put it, everyone else made the big leap when it counted most. On the raw timesheet, it’s a good result. Inside the garage, you could sense the feeling it might have been better.
Even so, this is now two top-10 starts from three outings, the only blemish at Monza coming via an engine penalty rather than lack of pace. For a driver whose future remains unresolved and who is expected to hand the car back to Isack Hadjar for Azerbaijan later this month, every lap is a pitch to Red Bull’s powerbrokers.
On Sunday night in Spain, he delivered another compelling one. Now the question is simple: when the music stops on this short Red Bull stint, will they really be willing to let him walk away?
