Liam Lawson ended Friday’s opening day of running for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix encouraged by the pace of his Racing Bulls package despite a minor issue limiting his track time during the second practice session.
The New Zealander finished seventh in Free Practice 1 before ending the day 13th on the FP2 timesheets, with an electrical problem restricting him to just eight laps during the afternoon session.
Mercedes driver George Russell set the benchmark in the opening practice session, leading the way with a lap of 1:16.363 ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Friday’s first hour of running featured seven rookie drivers as teams fulfilled their mandatory young-driver requirements. While several newcomers impressed, Lawson was one of the standout performers among the regular drivers.
After working through the opening stages on medium tyres, the Racing Bulls driver produced a strong lap of 1:17.472 on soft tyres to secure seventh place, finishing behind Russell, Piastri, Leclerc, Max Verstappen, McLaren rookie stand-in Leonardo Fornaroli and Audi reserve Paul Aron.
The session proved productive for Racing Bulls, as Arvid Lindblad, driving the team’s second car during FP1, finished in the top 10 after posting a 1:17.804.
Russell’s fastest lap came during the qualifying simulation phase after Verstappen had briefly moved to the top of the times. However, the Mercedes driver responded emphatically to finish almost four tenths clear of the field.
Behind the leading trio of Russell, Piastri and Leclerc, Verstappen was fourth while several drivers battled handling issues throughout the session. Williams endured early problems, with Carlos Sainz temporarily stranded in the pit lane and reserve driver Luke Browning unable to complete a lap due to an electrical issue.
For the second session, all full-time drivers returned to their cars as teams shifted their focus towards qualifying and race preparation.
McLaren’s Lando Norris topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:15.426, narrowly edging Russell by just nine thousandths of a second. Piastri completed a McLaren-Mercedes-McLaren top three, with only 0.057 seconds covering the trio.
Lawson’s afternoon was interrupted after his Racing Bulls stopped at the pit exit, triggering a brief Virtual Safety Car. The issue significantly reduced his running and prevented him from taking part in much of the key qualifying simulation work completed by the rest of the field.
Despite the setback, the team managed to return the car to the circuit later in the session for a systems check ahead of Saturday’s running.
At the front, Norris eventually held onto the top spot from Russell and Piastri, while Leclerc was fourth ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Verstappen. Lindblad enjoyed an impressive session in seventh with a 1:16.411, while Lawson’s limited running left him 13th with a best lap of 1:16.967.
Speaking after the session, Lawson remained upbeat despite the lost track time.
“We had a small issue today that’s relatively easy to fix, but unfortunately it meant that we couldn’t take part in the main part of the session,” Lawson said.
“While it’s frustrating, it’s much better for it to happen today than tomorrow. The positive is that we’ve had a strong car from the start of both practice sessions, and overall we’re in a really good place heading into the rest of the weekend.
“We’ll take the learnings from today, make the necessary adjustments and hopefully have a smooth day tomorrow. This is also the first time we’ve been able to properly test our upgrades from Canada on a high-speed circuit, so it’s really encouraging to see them performing well.”
Racing Bulls Team Principal Alan Permane echoed Lawson’s optimism, believing the team’s recent upgrades continue to deliver promising results.
“We’re pretty happy with how today has gone,” Permane said.
“The car had a big update in Montreal, and we haven’t driven any high-speed corners since then. This track was therefore going to be a big test for what we brought back then, but also for the rest of the season.
“A small electrical issue with Liam’s car meant that he missed part of the session, but it’s nothing major, and he was able to get back out on track for a shakedown ahead of FP3.
“Arvid also did a great job today, and we’ll be pushing for both cars to make it to Q3 in Qualifying tomorrow.”
While Friday’s running was not entirely straightforward for Lawson, Racing Bulls was left encouraged by both the pace shown across the two sessions and the performance of its latest upgrades.
With the electrical issue expected to be resolved overnight, Lawson will head into Free Practice 3 and qualifying confident that the car has the speed to challenge for a place inside the top 10.
Header Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images via Red Bull Content Pool
