Liam Lawson was left frustrated after contact with Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad effectively ended his hopes of scoring points in a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Kiwi recovering to finish 12th in Baku.
Starting 11th following Carlos Sainz’s five-place grid penalty, Lawson made immediate progress and moved into the points on the opening lap after getting ahead of Haas driver Ollie Bearman.
Holding onto a top-10 position proved difficult, however, with Racing Bulls struggling for outright pace throughout the weekend. Bearman reclaimed the place on Lap 5 before Kimi Antonelli, charging through the field after starting 16th, worked his way past Lawson on Lap 12 to drop the Kiwi to 12th.
Lawson remained within touching distance of the points as the race developed, with strategy beginning to come into play before Alex Albon’s crash brought out the Safety Car and gave the field an opportunity to make their stops.
It was the restart later in the race that ultimately proved costly for Lawson.
With the field bunching into Turn 1, Lindblad locked up while attempting to make progress and made contact with the rear of Lawson’s Racing Bulls, sending the Kiwi spinning into the run-off area. Lawson was able to continue, but the contact damaged the floor of his car and sent him tumbling to the back of the field.
His immediate reaction over team radio made his frustration clear.
“Man, I love getting taken out by my teammate, that’s pretty sick,” Lawson said.
After the race, Lawson remained confused about how the incident unfolded. I need to watch it. We were all coming into Turn 1 on the restart, and I just got smoked from my left. It put a hole in my floor, too.
“I don’t really know what gap he was looking for in the middle of both of us going into Turn 1 – I just don’t understand it. Obviously great points for the team but it sucks for our race.”
Despite the setback, Lawson fought his way back through the field during the closing stages. He cleared both Cadillacs and Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi, while Oscar Piastri’s mistake at Turn 1 also helped Lawson climb back to 12th before the chequered flag.
Lindblad escaped the Racing Bulls contact without significant damage and continued inside the points, eventually passing Esteban Ocon to secure seventh by just 0.030 seconds at the line. Lindblad apologised to Lawson and the team following the race.
“First of all, I want to apologise to Liam and the team for the incident at Turn 1 after the restart. It was chaotic as the field bunched up, and we were all pushing the limits, so I think everyone ended up braking a little too late. I was ready to make a move on Esteban, but he moved at the last moment and I just didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“Aside from that, it was a good race for us. It’s been a difficult weekend for us, so to come away with points is certainly a positive. A huge credit to the entire team for all the work they put in throughout; we executed the race well, and it was good fun battling with the two Haas towards the end. Now we’re looking forward to getting back out there in the next couple of weeks, with Malaysia and Singapore coming up.”
While the contact denied Racing Bulls an opportunity to bring both cars home further up the order, Lindblad’s six points proved valuable in the team’s Constructors’ Championship battle with Alpine.
The French team endured an even more damaging restart when Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly collided at Turn 1, with Lando Norris also caught in the incident. All three were forced to retire.
Lawson acknowledged that Racing Bulls had benefited from the problems around them on a weekend where the team had struggled for performance.
“We got very lucky today – they were much quicker than us and they have been all weekend. We need to try and turn it around next week.”
His official post-race comments also focused on the bigger picture for Racing Bulls despite his own disappointing result.
“Not the greatest race for me today, but I’m pleased the team could come away with some valuable points and recover some ground in the Championship fight with Alpine. We’ve struggled with pace all weekend, so that’s something we’ll work on over the rest of the triple-header.
“We got caught up in a crash at Turn 1 during the restart, which caused some damage to the car and meant we couldn’t push forward as much as we would have liked. We’ll take what we can from today and be back next week, ready to fight again.”
Team Principal Alan Permane admitted Racing Bulls had been fortunate to leave Azerbaijan with six points after a difficult weekend.
“It was quite a race for us today and, honestly, we were fortunate to come away with the result we have. We were able to capitalise on the opportunities that presented themselves throughout the race, and to come away with six points for the team is a really positive outcome from a challenging weekend.
“We’ve had a tougher-than-usual weekend in terms of performance, but the cars certainly performed better today than they have done across the rest of the weekend. That gives us another set of data to analyse and learn from as we look to understand where we can improve.
“I’m looking forward to returning to Malaysia next week. It’s a physically demanding race for the drivers, particularly with the high temperatures and humidity, so preparation will be key. We’ll take the learnings from this weekend with us and focus on arriving in Malaysia in the best possible shape to put together a strong performance.”
At the front, George Russell converted pole position into victory, but only just.
The Mercedes driver controlled much of the race before coming under increasing pressure from Max Verstappen during the closing stages, with the Red Bull pulling alongside on the run to the chequered flag.
Russell held on by just 0.1 seconds, while Isack Hadjar completed the podium in the second Red Bull.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Antonelli, who produced a strong recovery from 16th on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton took sixth. Lindblad followed in seventh, with Ocon, Bearman and Sainz completing the points-paying positions. Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th ahead of Lawson, Bortoleto, Piastri and Sergio Perez.
For Lawson, 12th represented a recovery of sorts after being sent to the rear end of the field, but the result left the Kiwi without points on a day where his teammate was able to capitalise on the late-race chaos.
Attention now turns to Malaysia as Racing Bulls looks to address the lack of pace that hampered both cars throughout the Azerbaijan weekend.
Header Image: Alastair Staley/LAT Images via Red Bull Content Pool
