Lawson and Verstappen Make Strides Despite Challenges in Practice 2

Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen continued to struggle with their cars in the second F1 Practice session earlier this evening, with Red Bull ‘still finding their feet.’

Before making it to the track, Lawson had a moment with McLaren driver Lando Norris on the pit exit.

The session started with a big moment on Turn 6 for Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg, the same place where Haas driver Oliver Bearman went off track into the gravel and found the wall in the previous practice session. Bearman could not make it back on track for Practice 2, and his team was still working to repair the car.

Liam Lawson visited his pit garage 15 minutes into the practice session, facing the same struggles as in Practice 1. His first flying lap was 1.18.253s, a gap of 1.427s to Carlos Sainz, who set the bar at 1.17.302s early in the session. The Red Bull pit crew making regular changes to the car’s setup over the two practice sessions to find its sweet spot.

Max Verstappen noted over his team radio that he wasn’t satisfied with his car. The team ordered him to come into the pits, where they placed the car on stands and made some changes to the front suspension setup in hopes of improving it. He currently placed 7th on the leaderboard with a 1.17.893s lap.

At one stage of Practice 2, Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda topped the leaderboard with a brilliant lap, 1.16.784s. At the same time, the two Red Bull cars were down the bottom of the leaderboard in 15th and 16th place. Tsunoda is out in Melbourne with something to prove, and he’s doing a fine job of it so far after losing out on the Red Bull seat to Lawson.

Something to note: Lawson has only competed in 11 F1 races and has never driven on the Albert Park Circuit before. He is on a new track in a new car with a new team. All other drivers on the grid have experience on this track, whether it be in Formula 1 or other classes in the past. Considering these circumstances, some might say Lawson is doing well as the team scrambles to improve both Red Bull cars before qualifying.

F1 Technical Analyst Sam Collins shared some info on the two Red Bulls, giving fans some insight into why the two drivers aren’t performing to their full potential.

“Yeah, I mean, if we are comparing Lawson versus Verstappen, I think that comparison is a little bit unfair right now as two Red Bulls are not running in the same configuration,” said Collins.

“Liam Lawson is running the older specification that the team started pre-season testing with the long nose that goes all the way to the front of the front wing.

“Max Verstappen is using the shorter nose, which only picks up on the second element of the front wing, and when you see a change like that right at the front of the car, you could be absolutely sure there’s quite a few bits and bob’s further downstream behind that and on the floor in the car that is going to be different and I wonder if Max is running the new floor and Lawson is running the old floor as well so you really aren’t comparing like with like.”

At the conclusion of Practice 2, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc topped the leaderboard with the fastest lap time of 1.16.439s. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri finished 2nd, while teammate Lando Norris finished behind Piastri in 3rd.

Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda had an impressive Practice 2 session, finishing in 4th place. Lewis Hamilton, now driving for Ferarri, was more comfortable in his car after finishing 12th in Practice 1. Hamilton finished 5th, rounding out the Top 5 drivers for the second practice session of the weekend.

Lawson finished in 17th place, with a 1.201s gap to Leclerc, while teammate Max Verstappen finished the session 7th. The gap between Lawson and Verstappen was 0.577s.

“Comfortable, but just too slow. We have a lot of work to do tonight. Obviously, we expected some work on the first day of a new circuit, but probably not that much. We will work on it tonight and then try to improve it for Saturday,” said Liam to F1TV.

In a qualifying pace simulator shown on F1 TV coverage, predictions show Lawson qualifying in 9th place tomorrow, 0.575s off the pace of the pole sitter. Predictions show Norris, Piastri, and Leclerc as the leading contenders for the pole position.

The final practice session for the weekend kicks off at 14.30 NZT tomorrow before Qualifying at 18.00 NZT.

Full results – FIA Formula 1 – Practice Two

Header Image: Red Bull Content Pool