Liam Lawson Shines in Chaotic Interlagos Qualifying
The rain came early at Interlagos and with it the kind of qualifying session that sorts the opportunists from the operators. Liam Lawson planted himself firmly in the second category.
On a day when the timing screens looked like a fruit machine, the Racing Bulls driver threaded his way through the mayhem to secure a place on the second row of the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix, matching his career-best qualifying in treacherous conditions that played directly to his strengths.
Up front, Lando Norris delivered the lap of the day to take pole for McLaren, with newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli alongside him on the front row. Behind them, Lawson will share row two with Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg — a pairing that underlined just how wild this qualifying session became.
Chaos from the first minute
The tone was set almost immediately. Less than two minutes into Q1, with rain falling over the famous old circuit, the red flag came out and ripped up every pre-session plan on the pit wall. Teams parked the long-game strategies and braced for a sprint.
When the session finally restarted close to 90 minutes later, the track began to dry, but only just. Grip improved lap by lap, turning Q1 into a straight shootout where every driver knew one thing: the later you crossed the line, the better.
Lawson spent much of the segment yo-yoing on the timing screens as others bolted on fresh rubber and chased the evolving surface. Yet he never looked truly threatened. His best lap, a 1m 32.085s, was good enough for seventh in Q1, with more than 1.2 seconds in hand over the cut-off. In a session that caught out several big names, it was a quietly ruthless piece of work.
For Racing Bulls, Q1 brought an even bigger boost. Constructors’ rivals Alpine suffered a nightmare, with both cars dumped out at the first hurdle. Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly could do no better than 17th and 18th, a hammer blow to Alpine’s hopes and a gift to Lawson’s team in the points fight.
Verstappen parked, Lawson pounces
Q2 began with an unexpected twist. Max Verstappen never rejoined the session, his 30-place grid penalty for a power unit change making any further running meaningless. The Red Bull star effectively vacated a spot in the top 10, and Lawson was in no mood to waste the opening.
As the conditions eased, Lawson’s first timed effort — a 1m 30.922s — slotted him comfortably inside the top 10. Then the track came to him.
Sensing the window, the Kiwi switched to intermediate tyres and attacked. The reward was a superb 1m 27.049s lap that launched him up to second in Q2, just 0.304s shy of session leader George Russell. In a field stacked with proven wet-weather performers, Lawson was right there with them, lap for lap.
Not everyone in the Racing Bulls garage shared in the momentum. Arvid Lindblad’s run ended in frustration when a mechanical issue forced him to stop at Turn 5. He was classified 12th, his hopes extinguished as Q2 was halted by another red flag when Haas debutant Rafael Camara hit the barriers with under a minute remaining.
Holding his nerve in the storm
By the time Q3 rolled around, the weather had turned again. More rain swept across Interlagos, undoing the grip that had allowed Lawson to shine in Q2. The track grew slower, the margins narrower. Anyone hoping to find another half-second of magic was kidding themselves.
In those conditions, the stopwatch told a simple story: no one was going to touch the lap Lawson had produced in the previous phase. He couldn’t improve, but crucially, he didn’t crack. While others wrestled with the worsening surface, he kept his composure and locked in a second-row start, equalling the best qualifying result of his Formula One career.
Behind him, Verstappen will launch his recovery drive from 21st after that hefty grid penalty, turning Monday’s 71-lap race into a tactical puzzle for the front-runners and a potential minefield for anyone in the midfield.
For Lawson and Racing Bulls, though, the picture is clear. Alpine are marooned in the pack, the weather forecast promises more rain, and a driver who relishes these conditions has clean air ahead of him.
The Brazilian Grand Prix starts at 6am on Monday. If the skies open again, Lawson will fancy this as more than just a chance to defend a good grid slot. It looks like an invitation to prove, once more, that he belongs on this grid next year — and for a long time after that.
