Liam Lawson continued an excellent 2026 F1 season with a P7 finish at the Malaysia round on Sunday afternoon.
Starting P11 after just missing out on Q3 on Saturday, the New Zealander had an unbelievable launch off the line to be challenging Max Verstappen for P3 by Turn 1. However, the Dutchman got his elbows out and the 24-year-old sensibly backed out of it at Turn 4.
Once Isack Hadjar cleared him, the Racing Bulls driver ran in 5th for 15 laps, before Lewis Hamilton came through. Leclerc, Piastri and Norris also overtook him as the day went on and fell to 9th.
Nonetheless, a wild mistake by the World Champion behind the Safety Car, as well as George Russell’s retirement, meant Liam Lawson crossed the line at the end of the 2026 Malaysia F1 race. He led the midfield fight for the whole 55-lap contest once it got going.
Chaos on the formation lap and no radio for car #30
As multiple cars slowed and came to a stop in an embarrassing moment for the sport, Liam Lawson revealed he had no radio. While he could keep up some speed and did not pull over, he was unsure about whether he could pass.
Even more importantly, all the procedures and switch changes a driver does on a formation lap with these complex Power Units requires some help from their engineers. This time around he was on his own until he got back to his grid slot. Luckily for him, the radio started working from there.
“I had no radio, and I knew I had no radio before I even pulled away for the formation lap.
“So I was very stressed because there’s a lot of procedures, especially on this year’s car, that you have to do.
“And I literally was like no idea what’s going on, no idea what mode I was meant to be in. I had to look at my pit board on the way by to read a certain switch change I had to do.
“So yeah, very stressful. That was probably the most alone I’ve ever felt. And obviously very confusing when all the cars were slowing down.
“But again, I couldn’t talk to the team. I didn’t know if I was allowed to overtake or what. So just a lot of confusion.”
Liam Lawson on the unbelievable start he had in 2026 F1 Malaysia race
A rocket launch from the former F2 and F3 winner moved him all the way up to 4th. He was helped by some starting on dries and others boxing for inters at the end of the formation lap, but he had the best start of anyone alongside George Russell.
Starting on inters was absolutely critical as it gave him control of the midfield battle for the race. He praised his Racing Bulls squad for those correct tyre calls.
“I mean, great start, I didn’t expect to be fighting Max in turn one from where I was starting. But yeah, the car hooked up.
“And yeah, just very happy, very proud of the team, all the right decisions today with tyre choices, as much as sometimes I doubted it, to be honest.
“And I think we had quite a quick car as well especially that second stint, it was very strong for us.”
Lawson wishes he fought Piastri harder but very happy to beat Alpine in Malaysia
On the final restart, the New Zealander briefly cleared the Aussie down into Turn 1 as McLaren’s straight-line struggles got exposed again. Unfortunately for Lawson, Piastri got him back on the brakes into Turn 4 around the outside as he was quite cautious against a faster car.
As well as reflecting on some luck with Russell breaking down and a mistake by Norris to gain two spots, he bemoaned the fact he did not fight car #81 harder.
“No that’s the thing, I mean there was a point in the race where I thought ‘I feel like we’ve done a lot here, all for a P9.’ Then we got pretty lucky at the end there.
“And to be honest I kind of wish I’d fought Oscar [Piastri] more because I passed him into turn one and then I didn’t really didn’t defend too hard into [Turn] 4. I just braked a bit early because I expected it to be quite a bit quicker and he didn’t really drive away that much.
“So yeah, happy with P7.”
Since Zandvoort, the lead Alpine car has been ahead of both Racing Bulls in qualifying on Saturday. That continued in Malaysia — and it was significant in Q2 last weekend.
However, Franco Colapinto’s huge error in Azerbaijan, and then Alpine starting both cars on slicks in Sepang gave Racing Bulls open goals to extend their gap in the fight for 5th in the Constructors’ Championship. The P7 for Lawson and P10 for Lindblad in the 2026 F1 Malaysia race sees 22 points separating them with six or seven rounds to go.
The Kiwi was understandably very happy post-race.
“I mean, it’s two weekends now where they’ve been a bit quicker than us, and we’ve managed to outscore them.
“So yeah, very, very happy.”
