Liam Lawson posted the 15th-fastest time in both of Friday’s practice sessions at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls rookie getting valuable track time as the team debuted its first car upgrades of the season at Imola.
Despite a pair of red flag interruptions limiting running, Lawson still managed 42 laps across both sessions as the Racing Bulls rolled out updates to the floor and engine cover.
While the Kiwi outpaced teammates Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda in the opening session, he ended up behind all three Red Bull-affiliated peers in the second.
Hadjar and Tsunoda improved significantly in FP2 to finish seventh and eighth, respectively, while reigning champion Max Verstappen slotted into fifth. Lawson, meanwhile, held steady in 15th.
“Honestly, P1 wasn’t too bad,” Lawson reflected.
“Generally, we knew we had work to do, so we tried some stuff in P2.
“We both went in different directions to find out and get a good idea of the car, and we definitely did that, which is positive. We’ll work on applying that for tomorrow. Obviously, we’re pushing for [Q3].
“We obviously made a big step on the other side of the garage. Hopefully, we can both apply that tomorrow and take that step even further.”
Hadjar’s impressive pace in FP2 came despite a costly spin at Turn 3, where he clipped the barrier and triggered the session’s second red flag. Though the French driver avoided serious damage, he ended up beached in the gravel.
That red flag denied Lawson the chance to clock a final flying lap in FP2. Still, he shaved 1.031 seconds off his FP1 benchmark, ending the day with a best time of 1m16.255s.
That put him 0.962 seconds adrift of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who topped both sessions with a day-best 1m15.293s.
Hadjar’s top lap — a 1m15.792 — was 0.463 seconds quicker than Lawson’s best, underlining the fine margins on a weekend where eight of the 10 teams are adjusting to fresh upgrades.
McLaren reinforced their strong form with Lando Norris finishing second in both sessions behind his teammate. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also made a surprise appearance near the top of the timesheets, taking third in FP2.
The Racing Bulls outfit, headquartered in Faenza, are effectively racing on home turf this weekend at the nearby Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, where they conduct much of their behind-closed-doors testing.
Friday’s opening session saw teams take cautious exploratory runs as they assessed the impact of new parts and trialled Pirelli’s updated C6 soft tyre compound. The tighter layout of Imola, which makes overtaking notoriously difficult, means qualifying is expected to play an outsized role in Sunday’s race.
Lawson ran 22 laps in FP1, setting a time of 1m17.286s on the new softs. That left him 15th, 0.741 seconds off the benchmark time posted by Piastri, and ahead of both Hadjar (19th) and Tsunoda (16th).
The first practice was particularly tight, with just 1.117 seconds separating the entire field from first to last. Tensions were unusually high for FP1 as Tsunoda was seen pulling the middle finger at rookie Franco Colapinto as Tsunoda had a lap affected by the Argentinian.
Lawson will aim to carry that tradition forward and finally get off the mark in the 2024 season, as one of just four drivers yet to score a point.
Qualifying kicks off at 2 am NZT on Sunday morning.
Header Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
