Now, this is what you call a proper turnaround. According to Speedcafe, Liam Lawson has fought his way into SQ3 for only the second time this season, matching his previous final-segment appearance from the British Grand Prix and earning himself a share of the fourth row alongside championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
The day did not exactly start as a masterpiece. Lawson finished 10th in the sole practice session, but the garage went to work. Setup adjustments between sessions and a drop in track temperature as evening rolled in completely transformed the machine. After posting a 1m33.133s in SQ2, he dropped a 1m32.341s on soft tyres in SQ3 to seal the deal.
“Yeah pretty happy,” Lawson said, offering a straightforward verdict on the day's work. “We weren’t that strong earlier today and we made some changes. And I think maybe as well that cooling off a little bit helped us. But it was good.”
The final shootout brought an entirely new puzzle when they bolted on the soft compound, even though it was SQ2 that produced his cleanest run. “Q2 was probably the better lap. The soft, it was the first time we’d run it today,” Lawson explained, noting the unexpected spike in grip that caught drivers off guard.
Looking ahead to the sprint race, the battle lines are drawn. Lawson knows pressure is coming from Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, who lines up right behind him in ninth, but the objective is simple. “We’re at the moment in one position point, so we’ll try and stay there,” he stated.
It was a very different story on the other side of the garage for Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad. A mistake at Turn 13 combined with late yellow flags derailed his attempts to find a rhythm on the tricky street circuit, leaving him down in 17th place.
Racing Bulls technical director Dan Fallows pointed out that the team's homework—focusing heavily on setup and cooling following a promising weekend in Malaysia—is finally paying dividends. With the car showing genuine pace and overtaking surprisingly on the table at certain rounds this year, the squad is aiming high for both the sprint and Sunday's main event when the lights go out at 5pm local time.
