Lawson to start 10th as red flags punctuate qualifying

Kiwi FIA Formula 3 ace Liam Lawson has narrowly scraped himself into the Top-10 in qualifying for round 2 of the championship at the Red Bull Ring as the 30-minute session was punctuated by two red flags.

Starting tonight’s opening affair from pole position is Danish racer Frederik Vesti who set a 1m20.378s in the dying stages to leapfrog himself to the top of the timing screens.

The Prema driver had had his previous fastest lap time deleted for track limits and when Igor Fraga came to a halt on the front straight with five minutes on the clock, Vesti had one sole lap to best provision pole-sitter and teammate Logan Sargeant.

Sargeant elevated himself to the top of the pack following the session’s first restart after round one pole-sitter Sebastian Fernandez crashed into the barriers just before the half-way point.

Vesti’s lap time put him two-tenths quicker than David Beckmann who also set a late lap to seal the final spot on the front row of the grid.

Sargeant hung on to fourth ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri in Prema 1-3-4.

Lawson was once again the lead Hitech GP car but the team’s qualifying issues from round 1 continued to manifest one week later and the Kiwi could only muster tenth, 0.4s adrift of pole position.

Lawson will have his first race of the weekend later tonight from 8.35 pm NZT as the Styrian countryside braces itself to battle heavy rainfall in what could be the series’ first wet race of 2020.