Liam Lawson views his P6 finish at the 2026 F1 Spanish GP as a “good result” after fighting his way through a challenging race at the Madring.
Lawson entered the inaugural Madrid weekend set for his third outing with Red Bull Racing, replacing Isack Hadjar, who is still recovering from a wrist injury. Driving on the 5.4km circuit for the first time, the Kiwi driver began with P10 in both FP1 and FP2 before improving to P7 in FP3. Despite making Q3 in Qualifying, Lawson only managed P8, later explaining that a loss of balance left him unable to put together a competitive final lap.
Starting Sunday’s race on hard tyres, Lawson spent the opening laps behind Franco Colapinto before making a rare overtake at Turn 5 on Lap 10 to move into P6. A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) then interrupted his strategy, with the Red Bull driver running a long first stint before pitting on Lap 45 to take on mediums and rejoin in P7. Lawson went on to regain P6 with three laps left after diving past Pierre Gasly at Turn 20 as the Alpine driver locked up.
The result marks his best finish with Red Bull this season, improving on his P7 at Zandvoort and P14 at Monza.
“Just difficult to race on”: Lawson on the new Madrid circuit
Reflecting on his race strategy after the 2026 F1 Spanish GP, Lawson shared:
“Yeah, I mean, yeah, we started on the hard and sort of forced us to go a bit longer. The VSC wasn’t ideal, but considering where we started, I think the damage for us was really done yesterday. So yeah, it’s a good result.”
A key moment of recovering from his P8 qualifying result came on Lap 10, when the Kiwi driver made one of the four overtakes recorded around the Madrid street circuit. Notably, overtaking proved difficult at the Madring due to its technical layout, with Lawson highlighting the challenge of making a pass.
“It’s so hard to overtake,” he began. “I mean, I had to take a lot of risk with Franco to make that pass, and I barely, honestly, made the corner without doing track limits. So, it’s just hard, that’s where this track layout is, but it’s fun to qualify on, just difficult to race on.”
Adjusting to Red Bull Racing
Lawson previously raced for Red Bull across the opening two rounds of the 2025 season, before being moved back to Racing Bulls following a DNF and a P12 result. Now, with another opportunity, the 24-year-old has improved significantly, securing points in two of his three starts despite having to quickly adapt to the Red Bull RB22.
Asked how he views his performance with the team over the last few races, Lawson focused on the positives while highlighting the challenges he faced in Italy when serving a penalty for a number of power unit component changes.
“I mean, it’s been, overall, quite positive. Managed to score in, obviously, two of the three. I think Monza was tough, just with the whole layout of the weekend with the engine penalty. And then, obviously, having damage in the race. Really ruined it for us, but I think, overall, we’ve had good speed.
“I think this weekend was the first time where I felt like we could really fight in Quali and fight at the front. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it together in Q3, but we had good speed. So, it’s got better each weekend.”
With the 2026 F1 Azerbaijan GP now two weeks away, uncertainty remains over whether Lawson will return to Racing Bulls or continue with Red Bull Racing. Looking ahead to the upcoming break, the New Zealander revealed that he will still have plenty of work to do behind the scenes.
“Yeah, it’s a lot of time at the factory and doing a lot of extra preparations. Yeah, I think this week off won’t be much of a week off.”
