📰 Liam Lawson avoids stewards’ punishment to log solid day in Saudi practice

By Alex Powell

Liam Lawson has completed a solid day of practice for Formula One’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, completing 39 laps on the difficult track in Jeddah.

The Racing Bulls driver logged the 11th and 14th fastest times in the respective sessions, in his first experience of driving the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in a Formula One car.

The Kiwi’s only blemish came in the form of being investigated for failing to comply with race director’s instructions, twice in FP1, and was warned by the stewards after entering the painted area between the pit entry and the track.

The stewards found that while Lawson’s infringement was worth punishment, the fact he’d done it in practice gave him no advantage, and did not warrant further action.

Across both sessions, Lawson logged a best time of 1m 29.488s - achieved in free practice two - and finished 1.221s back from Lando Norris of McLaren, who set the best mark of the day with 1m 28.267s. Teammate Oscar Piastri was 0.163s back from Norris.

Lawson’s teammate, Isack Hadjar was 15th in practice one, but bettered the Kiwi with 12th place in practice two, coming away with a 0.182s gap between the two Racing Bulls cars.

Given the high speed nature of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, laps driven were the key objective of the first session, before timed efforts took precedence in the second.

More than one driver struggled to come to grips with the fastest street circuit on the calendar, including newly minted world championship favourite Oscar Piastri, who clipped the wall in his opening laps.

Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson’s replacement at Red Bull, clipped the wall at turn 27, crashed, and triggered a red flag that all but ended the second session of the day, before it resumed with less than two minutes remaining.

The earlier session saw temperatures on track touch 60 degrees Celsius. However, those temperatures effectively rendered the first session as meaningless, given the grand prix itself is raced at night, which sees cars and tyres behave differently on a cooler track.

The evening session, meanwhile, saw Lawson complete the majority of his laps on soft tyres, as preparation for Sunday’s (NZ time) qualifying. And given every race in 2025, so far, has been won by the driver that started on pole, qualifying will be key for all drivers, in the last Grand Prix of this three week block.

The two practice sessions also saw Lawson complete no laps on the hard tyre, which will be used for the most part in the Grand Prix.

Helping Lawson’s confidence even further are his results at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in junior categories. In 2021, on his first visit there, Lawson finished second in the Formula Two sprint race. A year later, he won that same race.

Earlier, in free practice one, neither of the two Racing Bulls were able to make use of the full session, and spent a significant amount of time in the garage to readjust both cars’ rear wings.

That meant both Racing Bulls cars recorded the fewest laps in the opening session. Lawson managed 17, with 11 coming on medium tyres and six on softs. Hadjar meanwhile only put in 14 laps, nine on mediums and five on softs.

Lawson was able to set the 11th fastest time of the opening session, crossing the line with a best effort of 1m 29.907s. That mark was just 0.668s off Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who set the fastest time with 1m 29.239s.

Hadjar was 15th with a best effort of 1m 30.011s, 0.104s back from his teammate. The two Red Bull cars of Verstappen (1m 29.818s) and Tsunoda (1m 29.821s) finished ninth and 10th respectively.

McLaren pair Norris and Piastri recorded the second and fourth best times of the first session.

Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place at 5am on Sunday, before the 50-lap race begins at 5am on Monday.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission