Lawson's Gritty Italian Grand Prix Journey

Lawson’s gritty Italian Grand Prix ended in the Monza gravel of frustration, but not without a reminder of why he has become one of the most watchable stand-ins on the grid.

The New Zealander first stepped into Isack Hadjar’s seat at the Dutch Grand Prix, thrown into the car after the Frenchman injured his wrist during the summer break. With barely any preparation, he wrestled the unfamiliar machinery to seventh in the main race, just missing out on points in the sprint. It was the sort of calm, opportunistic drive that earns trust inside a garage.

Monza told a harsher story.

Forced to start from the pit lane, Lawson’s afternoon looked doomed before the lights even went out. Instead, he turned it into a long, determined climb. Lap after lap he picked off cars, dragging himself from last place up to 11th, hovering on the edge of the points with the top 10 suddenly within reach.

Then came the contact.

A clash with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg damaged Lawson’s front wing and shredded any hope of converting the comeback into a reward. The pace went, the rhythm went, and with it the chance of a top-10 finish at one of the calendar’s blue-riband venues.

The result leaves Lawson ninth in the drivers’ standings on 51 points. He remains 20 points adrift of Hadjar, the man he is temporarily replacing, but crucially holds a 10-point cushion over Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who took pole at the Italian Grand Prix before coming home seventh on Sunday.

Now the calendar breathes. After Monday morning’s Spanish Grand Prix, the paddock gets a two-week pause before Azerbaijan. For Lawson, it is a rare chance to reset, study the data, and sharpen the edges of a campaign that has mixed promise with near-misses.

He has shown he can fight from the back. The next question is whether he can turn that fight into a sustained charge up the table.