{"id":607595,"date":"2026-09-21T23:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607595\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T23:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:24:10","slug":"formula-1-liam-lawson-to-return-to-racing-bulls-for-azerbaijan-grand-prix-as-isack-hadjar-declared-fit-after-wrist-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607595\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1: Liam Lawson to return to Racing Bulls for Azerbaijan Grand Prix as Isack Hadjar declared fit after wrist injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Hadjar\u2019s absence, Lawson proved a more than reliable deputy for Red Bull \u2013 the same side that demoted him just two races into 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Dutch Grand Prix, the Kiwi defied limited preparation time<\/a> in a new car to take seventh-place<\/a> as the only one of Red Bull\u2019s four cars to finish in the points, after Verstappen crashed on the opening lap. That came after qualifying just 0.115s behind Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while Lawson was unfortunate to miss a top-10 finish at the Italian Grand Prix after sustaining front wing damage<\/a>, taking sixth at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid<\/a> saw him bank 14 championship points from his three race stint.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix. Photo \/ Red Bull<\/p>\n

Returning to Racing Bulls gives Lawson clarity in his preparation for this weekend\u2019s grand prix, having split his efforts between the two teams\u2019 cars<\/a> in previous race weeks while Hadjar recovered.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, doing so in Baku sees Lawson back in the Racing Bulls car one year on from achieving his best result<\/a>, after taking fifth, having qualified third at last year\u2019s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

In Lawson\u2019s absence, Racing Bulls\u2019 lead over Alpine in the constructors championship has been cut to just 11 points, having been handed a huge boost by Pierre Gasly being stripped of his podium finish<\/a> from the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend begins on Thursday night (NZT), after it was brought forward by one day to avoid clashing with the nation\u2019s annual remembrance day on September 27.<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Hadjar\u2019s absence, Lawson proved a more than reliable deputy for Red Bull \u2013 the same side that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[53396,74,806,21400,58032,12817,28419,2082,29188,71,10813,210994,10938,15258,210993,47525,20409,111,139,69,47527,3512,1527,213,1961,61,10939,23366,102,146915],"class_list":["post-607595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-53396","tag-after","tag-as","tag-azerbaijan","tag-bulls","tag-declared","tag-fit","tag-for","tag-formula","tag-from","tag-grand","tag-hadjar","tag-herald","tag-injury","tag-isack","tag-lawson","tag-liam","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prix","tag-racing","tag-return","tag-sports","tag-this","tag-to","tag-understands","tag-weekends","tag-with","tag-wrist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607595","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=607595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}