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<\/a><\/p>\nThe New Zealander started the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend strongly, finishing seventh in opening practice with a 1m17.472s after completing 24 laps.<\/p>\n
However, his second session was interrupted when he stopped just outside the pit exit early in FP2, bringing out a virtual safety car and limiting him to just eight laps.<\/p>\n
Lawson was eventually able to return late in the hour after Racing Bulls resolved the issue, setting a 1m16.967s to finish 13th in the session.<\/p>\n
While the stoppage came at a frustrating point in the day, Lawson said the problem was not a major concern heading into the rest of the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a small issue today that\u2019s relatively easy to fix, but unfortunately it meant that we couldn\u2019t take part in the main part of the session,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s frustrating, it\u2019s much better for it to happen today opposed to tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe positive is that we\u2019ve had a strong car from the start of both practice sessions, and overall we\u2019re in a really good place heading into the rest of the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll take the learnings from today, make the necessary adjustments and hopefully have a smooth day tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also the first time we\u2019ve been able to properly test our upgrades from Canada on a high-speed circuit, so it\u2019s really encouraging to see them performing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team principal Alan Permane said Racing Bulls was pleased with the early signs from its updated package.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pretty happy with how today has gone,\u201d Permane said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car had a big update in Montreal and we haven\u2019t driven any high-speed corners since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis track was therefore going to be a big test for what we brought back then, but also for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA small electrical issue with Liam\u2019s car meant that he missed part of the session, but it\u2019s nothing major and he was able to get back out on track for a shakedown ahead of FP3.<\/p>\n
\u201cArvid also did a great job today and we\u2019ll be pushing for both cars to make it to Q3 in Qualifying tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Racing Bulls\u2019 pace was also underlined by Arvid Lindblad, who finished ninth in FP1 and improved to seventh in FP2.<\/p>\n
Norris edges Russell in tight Barcelona FP2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a day of mixed fortunes for Liam Lawson in Barcelona on Friday. Image: XPB Images The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[239088,5704,111,139,69,20114,213],"class_list":["post-475731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barcelona-catalunya-gp","tag-liam-lawson","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-racing-bulls","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lawson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/XPB_1416676_HiRes.jpg\")