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Sport Nation
Lawson qualifies third in career-best Azerbaijan GP qualifying
Sport Nation • September 21st, 2025 11:30 am
In Round 17 of Formula 1 at Baku, Azerbaijan, Liam Lawson qualifies 3rd - his highest ever qualifying position. Photo Credit: © MPS Agency / Psnewz 2025
New Zealand's Formula One star, Liam Lawson has qualified in third position for tonight's Formula One race in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In a chaotic qualifying session, there were six red flags with numerous cars making costly mistakes on the tight circuit.
Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen went on to take an immaculate pole - his sixth of the season - at the end of the crash-strewn qualifying session which dragged on for nearly two hours.
The grid has a surprising look to it lineup with Carlos Sainz Jnr putting his Williams on the front row alongside the four-time world champion Verstappen, while Lawson qualified third and will start alongside Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in fourth in an all-rookie second row.
Lawson's time in the third session of 1:41.707 left him just over a tenth of a second behind Sainz.
The flying Kiwi and the Spaniard have history after they came together in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort just three weeks ago.
When Lawson spoke to Sky Sports UK after qualifying, he said: “When it needed to be in quali, it was good. Massive thanks to the guys and girls, the team’s been amazing this weekend so far.
“But, obviously, tomorrow is the important day.
“It’s going to be a very hard race, for sure. We have a great starting position, but we’re aware of who we’re fighting around us."
The last time a New Zealander finished on the podium in Formula One was over fifty years ago when Denny Hulme won the Argentinian Grand Prix in 1974.
Lawson will be hoping his outstanding qualifying effort can see him add his name to the illustrious list of New Zealand Formula One drivers to have climbed onto the podium.
Lawson's French Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar, qualified in eighth.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed into the barriers in the the final qualifying session - yet his rare mistake could have proved much more costly.
It left him one position behind Hadjar in ninth - his worst effort of the season - but his teammate and nearest title challenger Lando Norris couldn't take full advantage as he went flat-out for pole only to also have a slight brush with the wall himself on the way to finishing seventh quickest.
"I think I just braked a little bit late. I have not seen any data or anything, but it's normally what happens when you end up locking your brake," sighed Piastri, whose career to date has been marked so far by an absence of such mistakes.
With gusts in the 'City of Wind' and occasional spots of rain having made life difficult for all the drivers, Piastri wasn't the only driver to trigger a red flag, with Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Oliver Bearman and Charles Leclerc all crashing.
Before Saturday, Piastri, hadn't qualified outside the top-four all season, but is not as badly off as he had expected to be immediately after the accident.
Thirty-one points ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the championship race, the Englishman would have had a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit substantially if he had subsequently got on to the front row.
Yet Norris wouldn't accept that he had missed a big opportunity with his subsequent scrappy lap. "No, because I still did everything I could," he responded.
"Sometimes it goes your way around here, sometimes it doesn't."
McLaren are still hoping to wrap up the constructors' title with seven rounds to spare this weekend, the earliest the championship would ever have been won.
"I wish everyone could understand how difficult it was with the wind," Norris explained.
There was also more misery for Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who admitted he was shocked to qualify only 12th after believing he'd be shooting for pole.
Reporting from AAP's Ian Chadband and SportNation
