Liam Lawson impressed at the Belgian Grand Prix with a composed and strategic drive to eighth place, earning high praise from Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane.
“Liam had a near-perfect race,” Permane commented.
“He was strong and able to comfortably pull away from [Kick Sauber’s] Bortoleto behind and was very happy with the car overall.”
The 23-year-old began Sunday’s race in ninth position, lining up behind his teammate Isack Hadjar.
With rain impacting the start, all drivers initially circulated behind the safety car due to wet conditions at Spa-Francorchamps.
Lawson made a decisive move on lap 12, overtaking Hadjar before opting to switch from wet tyres to slicks a lap earlier than his teammate, an undercut that paid off.
“It’s always tricky when you cross over to a dry tyre when it’s damp, but the car was fast and in clean air we had great pace,” Lawson reflected.
“Often in those conditions, you just want to survive, so I’m very happy for the team and how everything came together.”
The Kiwi driver executed a clean one-stop strategy and held position in the points as others around him faltered. In contrast, Hadjar was hampered by technical difficulties and a second stop, dropping him to the rear of the field.
The race was dominated by McLaren, with Oscar Piastri leading teammate Lando Norris in a commanding 1-2 finish.
For Lawson, Spa marked his third points-scoring result of the season and provided valuable momentum heading into the final round before the summer break.
“Now we need to keep the momentum rolling forward and make sure we enter the summer break on a high,” he said.
Permane echoed that sentiment, looking ahead to next weekend’s event.
“It’ll be much hotter, and we’ve got different tyres, but we expect our car to perform well there,” he said, referring to the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.
Lawson is now tied on 16 championship points with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz but holds 14th place in the standings due to better results. He’s just six points behind teammate Hadjar, who sits 11th overall.
Formula 1 heads next to the Hungaroring for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, taking place from August 2–4.
Header Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
You can correct me if I’m wrong but F1 seems to be getting more and more of a parade with no chance of overtaking outside of pitlane changes so that it is more a case of what you get at qualifying will be close to what you get in the race. At least in MotoGP you will get more of a chance of getting from the back of the grid to somewhere on the podium.