News Summary
- Liam Lawson will share the second row with Nico Hülkenberg on the FIA’s provisional grid for the São Paulo Grand Prix.
- The Racing Bulls driver was second in Q2 and briefly led Q3, but traffic and returning rain ended his chance to improve on a 1:28.321.
- Lawson heads into Sunday ninth in the drivers’ standings with 83 points. Racing Bulls has yet to confirm its 2027 line-up.
Liam Lawson had already put Racing Bulls on the provisional pole when he caught Fernando Alonso in Q3 at Interlagos. He backed out and tried to leave himself enough room for one last lap. By then, the rain had returned and the chance to improve had gone. He qualified fifth with a 1:28.321, a time that will put him on the second row for Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix.
Lawson moves up to third on the FIA’s provisional grid because George Russell, who qualified second, has a five-place penalty and Charles Leclerc drops 10 places from fourth. That puts the Racing Bulls directly behind pole-sitter Lando Norris, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli alongside the McLaren on the front row and Nico Hülkenberg starting fourth for Audi.
How Lawson earned a second-row start at Interlagos
The grid penalties moved Lawson up two places. His speed was evident well before Q3. After heavy rain stopped qualifying for nearly 84 minutes, the field restarted on full wets and switched to intermediates as the track improved in Q2. Lawson finished that segment second behind Russell, with Isack Hadjar third. His Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad stopped with a power unit problem and missed Q3. He is set to start 12th.
Alonso set the first time in Q3, and Lawson went faster before Russell and then Norris took over at the top. When Lawson caught the Aston Martin on a subsequent attempt, he abandoned the lap to create a gap. That left him relying on another run in a session that was getting wetter. His earlier lap held up for fifth, 0.851s off Norris’s pole time and 0.347s quicker than Hülkenberg.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing some rain tomorrow,” Lawson said in Racing Bulls’ post-qualifying notes. He also pointed to the car’s pace in the dry. Racing Bulls had already put both cars in the top eight in Saturday’s dry final practice, with Lindblad seventh and Lawson eighth.
Lawson gets a start at the front while Racing Bulls weighs its 2027 line-up
A week earlier, Lawson had to start from the pit lane in Mexico City. He reached ninth on the road and was promoted to seventh after penalties for Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto. At Interlagos on Thursday, Lawson told reporters how the uncertainty over his seat had made results like that harder to enjoy.
Asked by F1 TV after qualifying whether a performance like Saturday’s might help his case, Lawson came back to how long the decision had been hanging over him. “I mean, yeah, but it’s been like this for months now,” he said.
Team principal Alan Permane has identified Lawson, Lindblad and Formula 2 driver Nikola Tsolov as the three candidates for two seats. Lawson arrived at Interlagos ninth in the drivers’ championship with 83 points, 69 of them scored for Racing Bulls. His best Grand Prix finish of the season is fifth in Monaco.
In Mexico, Lawson spent his Sunday recovering from the pit lane to score six points. At Interlagos, he starts directly behind the pole-sitter, with an Audi alongside and Hadjar’s Red Bull immediately behind. The São Paulo Grand Prix starts at 17:00 GMT on Sunday.
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix in Formula 1 live from Interlagos.
