Liam Lawson is hoping he will be able to discover the truth about Racing Bulls’ qualifying pace after a strong Friday in Azerbaijan.

The New Zealander made a “soul-destroying” mistake last time out at Monza and started last on the grid in a car which has developed into a regular Q3 and points contender in 2025.

Lawson has reached Q3 at four of the last six races, taking a career-best sixth in Austria, and in Baku, finished the two practice sessions in ninth and seventh, respectively and was 0.087s behind Max Verstappen in the second session. 

Reflecting on his day, Lawson felt there was “no reason” why the team could not translate its pace into a strong qualifying result.

“It was good, I haven’t driven here for a few years, so it is very different to what I remember from Formula 2,” Lawson explained.

“They’ve done a good job at cleaning the track because it started quite grippy and we’ve already done qualifying times, and even faster actually. 

“[We target Q3] every weekend, and obviously Monza was difficult for us, but it was not really a true representation of the pace, and we just had a tough weekend, but had it gone well, we should have been in the top 10.

“So we are pushing for that, and the car has been really consistent recently, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be, and we just have to keep chasing it with everybody else. 

“It is very close, so we’ll see what we get.”