Liam Lawson was able to use his tyre advantage well to climb through the field, and withstand late race pressure to bring home his first points finish of the season in the Chinese sprint race.
With most of the field choosing to start on the medium tyre, Racing Bulls elected to start him on the hard compound tyre. This meant he was likely to be slower at the start of the race, but have tyre life to be quicker than those at the end.
It was a very feisty start at the front, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton going wheel to wheel on Lap 1. Hamilton managed to take the lead with a bold move into Turn 8, but Russell was quick to respond and had the lead once again by the end of the lap.
Starting in thirteenth, Lawson managed to take advantage of some intense wheel-to-wheel racing to get up into tenth by the end of the first lap, sitting as the highest-placed driver on the hard tyre. Lawson’s teammate, Arvid Lindblad, was unfortunate to spin before the long back straight, dropping him to last place.
A battery-based cat-and-mouse game began to unfold at the front as Hamilton, Russell and Charles Leclerc put on a great show, with the lead changing multiple times per lap.
By lap 5, Lawson had managed to close up to Pierre Gasly and former teammate Isack Hadjar, and quickly got past Gasly at the start of the lap. A monumental train formed behind, with there only being half a second between each car from eighth to fourteenth.
Lawson started to put significant pressure on Hadjar at lap 10. The damaged Red Bull, on the soft tyre, started to degrade quickly, allowing Lawson to get past on lap 10 to sit in eighth place – importantly, the first points paying position of the sprint.
Lawson continued his charge and got past Ollie Bearman on lap 11 for seventh place. The hard tyre was clearly the tyre to be on at this stage of the race, with Lawson now focusing on pulling away. At the same time, Lindblad was asked by his team to retire the car, which he did on lap 12.
Hulkenberg was forced to retire on lap 14, which brought out the safety car. The front six cars came into the lane for soft tyres, which elevated Lawson to fifth place, albeit still on his hard tyres.
The safety car came into the lane on lap 16, leaving a three-lap sprint. Lawson resumed the race on lap 5, and quickly under pressure from Bearman. Piastri and Antonelli quickly got past Bearman, and Piastri was able to continue to get past Lawson by the end of the lap.
Antonelli, on fresh soft tyres, was also able to get past Lawson on lap 18. He was able to nurse the hard tyres home to cross the line in seventh place – six places up from his starting position, and as the highest Red Bull driver across the line.
After such a promising sprint race, Formula 1 action returns at 8:00 pm NZST tonight for qualifying for the main race.
