Liam Lawson has this morning cleanly completed the first practice session of Formula 1 proceedings at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. As the Red Bull reserve driver, Lawson took to the wheel of Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri RBPT for the one hour session.
Whilst not challenging the times of the field, the experience is one which will become more familiar for the 20-year-old. He completed 14 laps around the 7km circuit, with his fastest time being set on the hard compound tyres, some 5.5 seconds behind the leading Ferrari duo.
A switch to softs was made later in the session, however a red flag due to a stopped Haas on track saw the session halted for a period of time.
In addition to this, the weather conditions that plague Spa came into effect with 10 minutes remaining in the session, with a light drizzle persisting.
Following F1 practice, Lawson returned to his familiar home at Carlin in the Formula 2. The rain had come and gone come F2 qualifying, but surface water remained at locations across the track.
Dry lines eventually returned, seeing a Brazilian front-row lock-out with championship leader Felipe Drugovich claiming pole ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi.
Lawson qualified sixth fastest, .75s off pole. The reverse top 10 grid format following qualifying sees him start tomorrows sprint race in fifth.
Marcus Armstrong led the session midway through, but fast times on a drying track saw him fall down the order to 12th, where he will start in both races this weekend.
The sprint begins at 3.55am tomorrow, and will be shown live on Spark Sport.
