Liam Lawson delivered a career-best Formula 1 performance in front of a roaring European crowd, bringing his Racing Bulls machine home in a superb sixth place amid high drama, searing heat, and a one-stop strategy gamble at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix.
On a day where four drivers, including reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, failed to finish, Lawson showed racecraft, patience, and composure beyond his years, navigating a chaotic race that saw two McLarens battle for supremacy, Ferraris falter, and strategy calls make or break points-paying positions.
And at the front, Lando Norris claimed a historic victory for McLaren, their first at the Red Bull Ring since David Coulthard in 2001, leading teammate Oscar Piastri home for a memorable 1–2.
Tension was in the air even before the formation lap. William’s Carlos Sainz was stranded on the grid with a gearbox failure, stuck in first gear. Marshals rushed to his aid, and he eventually got moving, but rules dictated he had to start from pit lane.
What came next stunned the paddock: as he came to a stop at the exit of pit lane, the rear brakes of his car ignited, flames engulfing the rear of the car before finally being extinguished, and pushed back to his garage. His race was over before it began.
Race Control abandoned the start and delayed proceedings by 10 minutes. The field would now contest 70 laps instead of the scheduled 71.
As the lights went out, Norris launched cleanly off pole, while Verstappen got a flyer off the line from P7 and was already pass Lawson through Turn 1.
But it all unravelled in seconds at Turn 2. Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli braked too late and locked up, colliding into Verstappen’s right rear. The Dutchman’s car was too severely damaged from the heavy contact, his first retirement of the season sealed in front of tens of thousands of stunned fans. Antonelli was also out on the spot.
Lawson was caught in the middle of the melee. Antonelli’s rear clipped Lawson’s front wing as he squeezed through the narrowing gap, but the Kiwi miraculously avoided any major damage. Still, he lost crucial ground, dropping from his P6 grid slot to ninth by the time the Safety Car was deployed. Antonelli was later given a three-place grid penalty drop for causing a collision, which he will serve next weekend in Silverstone and also received two penalty points.
The restart on Lap 4 saw Norris lead Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton, and Russell. Lawson ran ninth behind Bortoleto and Albon, now in the thick of the midfield fight. With temperatures soaring, 30.6°C ambient and over 50°C on track, tyre management became critical.
Up front, the two McLarens began a race of their own. By Lap 10, they were 4.5 seconds clear of the rest, Piastri glued to Norris’ gearbox. The Australian launched a move for the lead, overtook Norris briefly, then lost the position again as the pair traded blows in a sensational intra-team scrap.
Behind them, Lawson was fending off Fernando Alonso while also watching his mirrors for undercuts. His teammate Isack Hadjar, who had taken an early gamble to pit under the Safety Car and switch to mediums, had dropped to the rear.
By Lap 14, Albon, Gasly and Colapinto had begun the pit cycle. Albon, running strongly in sixth, soon reported car trouble and was forced to retire, a devastating double DNF for Williams after Sainz’s earlier withdrawal.
As Norris and Piastri continued their personal duel, Piastri locked up heavily into Turn 3 on Lap 20, flat-spotting his tyres and nearly rear-ending Norris. He stayed out for a few laps as the team assessed data before pitting on Lap 24.
Norris pitted a few laps earlier on Lap 21 and rejoined in clear air. Piastri’s slow stop due to a stubborn front-left wheel cost him crucial time, he rejoined 5.5 seconds behind Norris, handing the effective lead back to the Brit.
In the meantime, Lawson was executing a brilliant race strategy, committing to a one-stop strategy (Plan A), he extended his first stint deep into the race, briefly climbing as high as third place before pitting on Lap 33.
It was a rapid 2.2-second stop, and he rejoined 12th, crucially ahead of Alonso. The fight for sixth was far from over.
As the second half of the race unfolded, Leclerc, Hamilton, and Bortoleto made their final stops around Lap 50. Russell pitted on Lap 46, promoting Lawson back up to P7, just behind Haas’s Esteban Ocon.
Lawson showed smart tyre conservation and pace, dispatching Ocon to climb to sixth once Russell boxed. Behind him, Alonso loomed large, closing the gap and attempting to reel in the Kiwi on fresher tyres. But Lawson stayed cool.
Lap after lap, he placed his car perfectly, breaking Alonso’s DRS advantage with just four laps to go. The Racing Bulls pit wall had confirmed earlier that they were fully committed to the one-stop, and Lawson was delivering on it perfectly.
Meanwhile, Hadjar had made an impressive recovery from 13th to climb up to ninth, but later fell back to 12th and outside of the points.
Up front, the traffic began to play its part. Norris and Piastri both made their second stops on Laps 53 and 54 respectively, with Norris retaking the lead. Piastri, despite clocking the fastest lap of the race (1:08.283), struggled with backmarkers in the closing laps, including an incident where Colapinto forced him off track and was penalised 5 seconds.
Hamilton finished fourth after a clean two-stop run, while Russell, on a late hard tyre stint, had the newer tyre advantage and caught up to Lawson on Lap 56, passing him and pushing the Kiwi to sixth.
In the final five laps, Lawson continued to hold strong, holding off Alonso for the second half of the race and only 4 seconds behind Russell, a remarkable effort given the tyre delta. He even lapped former teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who had suffered wing damage after colliding with Colapinto earlier on and was later penalised.
Bortoleto, meanwhile, briefly got the better of Alonso in a late-race scrap for seventh, but the veteran reclaimed the spot in the closing laps. Still, the rookie impressed the paddock and fans alike, earning Driver of the Day honours and scoring his first Formula 1 points with an eighth-place finish in his debut season.
At the front, Norris held on for victory, just, with Piastri closing rapidly but getting caught up in lapped traffic on the final lap. It was McLaren’s first win at Spielberg in 24 years, and a massive statement as the championship battle intensifies. Norris closes in on Piastri’s lead in the Drivers Championship Standings, the gap now just 15 points.
Sixth place may not grab headlines like a podium, but for Lawson, it was a defining performance, holding off Formula 1 veteran Alonso, making a one-stop strategy work flawlessly, and running mistake-free under enormous pressure in a race that claimed four retirements and tested every driver’s focus and stamina. Capping off a stellar weekend, Lawson now sits ahead of Tsunoda in the Drivers’ Championship and Racing Bulls now sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“It’s very cool. I’m a bit lost [for words] at the moment. It’s been a very tough race, especially after lap one. I don’t even know how I survived it. To be honest, I thought when I saw Kimi coming, I was like, okay, this is over, but somehow we got out of it, and then the speed was good. We made the one-stop work, which was key for us today. With today’s temperatures, I wasn’t sure about it, but the team knew, so I’m very, very happy.” said Lawson
Lawson was then asked how difficult it was to implement the one-stop strategy and make it work, as he and Alonso were the only two drivers to employ it successfully.
“It was tough. It’s always Fernando who’s behind, and I think he was within DRS for 71 laps today, so you try not to make a mistake. I thought he was quicker, but I just spoke to him, and he thought I was quicker. He was using me basically to keep DRS, so it’s one of those things we had a good car in the places where you needed to be, especially in the high speed before the DRS zones.”
The commentators talked about the emotional rollercoaster Lawson has been on since Zandvoort 2023 and asked how the Kiwi is feeling now after having a good race weekend from practice through to qualifying and the race.
“It’s been a very tough year; it’s been very emotional and very, very tough to just secure a result, so yeah, to do that is very cool. It’s obviously one good weekend, but I think I feel like the speed has been really good recently, and in practice at the last few races, it’s really good. Then it hasn’t converted in qualifying, so it was nice to do that yesterday. Still, in the back of my mind, obviously, I knew that today was the important one, and for us now, we just need to keep this momentum going forward.”
Lawson is no longer just a prospect, drives like this prove he’s carving out a permanent place in the F1 conversation.
Header Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
