‘I’m sorry’: Lawson misses top 10 start in Canada by hundredths of a second

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Author: Alex Powell,
Publish Date: Sun, 24 May 2026, 8:23am

All the action, as Liam Lawson returns to track in qualifying for Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Sprint race report

After a day to forget to begin Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Liam Lawson put in an impressive display to take 11th in the sprint race.

Following a disastrous opening day that saw Lawson only complete five laps and miss the chance to post a time in sprint qualifying, the Kiwi made the most on track passes (seven) of any driver over the 23-lap affair.

The Racing Bulls driver had crossed the line 12th, but a late penalty for Cadillac’s Sergio Perez relegated the Mexican from 11th to 14th, as punishment for forcing Lawson wide.

“I tried to go to the outside and be safe, and he just drove into me,” Lawson to his race engineer afterwards.

And while he may have finished outside the points, Lawson getting through the shorter race unscathed is a huge boost for himself and Racing Bulls after all the time on track he lost on Saturday.

However, with hours before qualifying, Lawson was heard telling his race engineer he had picked up damage during the final laps.

At the front of the grid, Mercedes’ George Russell led from lights out to take victory, in a bid to his title hopes from teammate Kimi Antonelli - who finished third.

The two Mercedes cars came wheel to wheel in the middle stages of the race, and even saw team boss Toto Wolff intervene to tell Antonelli to concentrate on driving.

World champion Lando Norris continued his resurgence after a slow start to the season to come home in second, after winning the sprint race in Miami earlier this month.

As a show of how competitive Racing Bulls should be in Canada, Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad came home eighth to claim the final point.

Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix begins at 8am on Sunday.

Having been condemned to starting last, Lawson was upgraded to 17th before lights out, as five drivers made changes to their cars and began from pit lane.

Needing to make up a further nine places over the 23 laps if he was to secure points, Lawson was able to climb to 16th by the end of the first lap, as Audi’s Gabriel Bortleto fell five places down the grid.

Behind the underperforming Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, Lawson’s pace advantage told on lap four as the Kiwi gained another place on the back straight into turn 16, as Lindblad climbed into the points ahead of him.

An engine failure for Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar had Lawson climb to 14th, but sat more than two seconds behind the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg ahead of him.

By lap 10, Lawson had cut that gap to less than one second, and set himself up for a chance to use overtake mode, only for Hulkenberg to keep the place by leaving the track at turn 16 when he was under pressure.

Hulkenberg could only hold on for so long before Lawson finally hunted him down on lap 14, and moved to 13th with his fifth on-track pass.

With eight laps to go, Lawson faced another reunion with Perez in 12th. However, after the Mexican started on the soft tyre compared to Lawson’s mediums, the Racing Bulls had the advantage at the end of the race, Lawson had every advantage he needed to make another overtake.

That cause was aided on lap 20, when Haas’ Esteban Ocon made an error that saw him drop from 11th to 15th, and left Lawson with his sights on 11th.

But up against a driver with close to 300 grands prix of experience, Lawson couldn’t get around Perez, and settled for 12th as the chequered flag was waved.