Red Bull Formula One driver Liam Lawson has acknowledged his costly mistake during the Australian Grand Prix qualifying, saying that he should not be going off the track in the manner that he did. Lawson’s crucial error will see him start Sunday’s Grand Prix from the 18th position, a significant contrast to his teammate Max Verstappen, who will start from third.
The race at the Albert Park circuit marks Lawson’s official Formula 1 debut with Red Bull as a full-time driver. However, his qualifying session was far from the start he had hoped for in the season. The Kiwi driver tried his best to improve his lap times in Q1 but ran wide at Turn 15, leading him to abort his flying lap. With just two minutes left on the clock, there wasn’t much he could do.
Lawson missed out on Free Practice 3 earlier in the day due to an alleged power unit problem on his RB21 Formula One car, which he believed could have helped him prepare better for qualifying. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 in Melbourne, as quoted by Crash.net, he said:
“We expected the start of qualifying to be tough. To be honest, the first laps were expected to be off and then we were just planning on building through the session.
“But obviously going off the second lap put everything out of the order a bit.
“The last lap was good until the last sector, where I had a big drop. Obviously missing P3 obviously doesn’t help any of us, but I shouldn’t be going off in quali.”
Lawson pointed out that he had been struggling with grip throughout the weekend so far, and the lack of an FP3 run made matters worse. He said:
“Before Turn 9, we were about half a second up. Then obviously we would have just kept improving.
“I really had a snap through 9 and 10, I think the tyres were really starting to drop there. This is something that we have just been battling this weekend and obviously something we missed practicing in P3.”
With the Australian GP predicted to be a wet race considering the high chance of rain, Lawson is still hoping for a considerable turnaround on Sunday. He added:
“Obviously Max is in a good position so we definitely made a step and obviously the weather tomorrow is variable so let’s see.”
2025 Australian Grand Prix Provisional Starting Grid
1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
4. George Russell (Mercedes)
5. Yuki Tsunoda (VCARB)
6. Alex Albon (Williams)
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
8. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
10. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
11. Isack Hadjar (VCARB)
12. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
14. Jack Doohan (Alpine)
15. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
16. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
17. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
18. Liam Lawson (Red Bull)
19. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
20. Ollie Bearman (Haas)
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