Lawson battles for 16th in Qatar Sprint, qualifies 17th for Grand Prix

Liam Lawson has finished 16th in the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint, on place ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda, before qualifying 17th for Monday morning’s Grand Prix on Lusial International Circuit.

Having impressed to qualify 10th on Saturday, Lawson lost out in a chaotic mid-field group to fall from the top ten to 16th on Lap 1 of the Sprint, where he remained until the chequered flag.

Returning four hours later for qualifying, he fell just 0.047 seconds short of progressing from Q1 to earn a starting spot of 17th.

“There was a bit of traffic when I started my last lap, and when the margins are hundredths of a second, it’s frustrating,” he said. “My tyres weren’t quite ready, which compromised the start of my lap. I couldn’t improve on my first lap time, which has put us out of position.

“Tomorrow’s going to be tough, and we struggled in the Sprint today. We’ll work as hard as we can as a Team for tomorrow, and find opportunities on track.”

RB’s Chief Technical Officer, Tim Goss, added, “Friday’s promising Sprint Qualifying grid position for Liam was unfortunately badly compromised on the first lap of the Sprint. A lack of grip and dirty tyres from running wide made defending position very difficult. Coupled with this the floor became badly damaged meaning there was little chance of recovering lost places.

“Qualifying was very tight. We couldn’t repeat our performance of Friday’s Sprint Qualifying performance. The combination of cooler temperatures and hard compound tyres meant tyre preparation proved to be a major feature of the session with teams trying various different combinations of preparation laps to varying success.

“Fundamentally the car balance remains good, and we are confident both drivers can fight for points positions in the race.”

The Sprint was won by Australia’s Oscar Piastri, who was handed the victory from teammate Lando Norris on the run to the line out of the final corner.

McLaren had told Norris they were happy for their drivers to finish in that order, but he instead opted to repay Piastri for doing the same at Interlagos when World Championship success was still a possibility.

Las Vegas Grand Prix winner George Russell followed the McLaren duo home to complete the podium.

Norris had retained his lead from pole off the start, and pulled to an advantage as Russell, who started second, came under pressure from Piastri off the line.

The Australian got the job completed through Turn 2, but was made to work to retain it over the following tours. McLaren asked Norris to back off to keep his teammate in DRS range to assist with his battle, which kept the Mercedes at bay for the remainder of the 17 laps.

While Piastri did drop out of DRS range on the final lap, he was able to keep Russell behind, before Norris backed off on the main straight to hand his teammate the win.

Carlos Sainz followed Russell in fourth, but never threatened for the podium given the DRS train ahead.

Charles Leclerc was 3.7 seconds behind in fifth, having wrestled the position from Lewis Hamilton on Lap 13. The seven-time World Champion was left to finish sixth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whose two World Championship points bring Haas equal on points with Alpine in sixth in the Constructor’s Championship.

Max Verstappen completed the points in eighth, having initially lost out to Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly off the line. He reclaimed a position of the latter to earn a solitary point for Red Bull in the race.

Segio Perez was the last driver to finish and one of only two to stop in the race. He was caught napping exiting pit lane on the start and was left embarassed when fellow pit lane started Franco Colapinto took the initiative to drive around him while entering the track.

From there, Red Bull’s second driver didn’t make any headway, and he stopped mid-race to replace his front wing.

In Grand Prix qualifying, Verstappen bounced back from his disappointing Sprint result to provisionally claim his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix . The World Champion’s 1m 20.52s flyer late in Q3 pipped Russell by just 0.055 seconds.

Post-session, however, Verstappen was handed a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slow and impeding Russell in qualifying, which hands pole to the Brit and relegates the Red Bull to second.

Norris and Piastri lock out the second row for McLaren, ahead of future teammates Leclerc and Hamilton, respectively. Sainz will line up for the Grand Prix in seventh, next to Fernando Alonso and ahead of Perez, who fought back from his difficult Sprint outing to make Q3, albeit it qualifying ninth and nine-tenths behind his teammate. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten.

Gasly, Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Tsunoda and Lance Stroll were eliminated in Q2, respectively, while Albon, Hulkenberg, Colapinto, and Ocon joined Lawson as the eliminated drivers from Q1.

The Qatar Grand Prix begins at 5.00 am NZST on Monday.

Qatar Grand Prix Sprint Results

Qatar Grand Prix Qualifying

Header Image: Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool