{"id":611690,"date":"2026-09-25T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T20:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611690\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T20:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T20:08:13","slug":"f1-lawson-narrowly-misses-top-10-start-as-russell-claims-baku-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611690\/","title":{"rendered":"F1: Lawson narrowly misses top 10 start as Russell claims Baku pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiwi Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has narrowly missed out on a top 10 start for tonight’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and will line up 11th on the grid.<\/p>\n

The Racing Bulls driver fell just 0.177 seconds short of progressing to the final stage of qualifying, with his session ending in Q2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just honestly been slow this weekend,\u201d Lawson said after qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a step [up] for quali, which was good. The lap was really good up until turn 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had no tow as well. I tried to start close to Max, but his out lap was too quick. By the end of the lap he\u2019d pulled away.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s super frustrating watching your delta climb, and you lose all the time you\u2019ve made up.”<\/p>\n

The Kiwi initially qualified 12th, but was upgraded to 11th after Williams’ Carlos Sainz received a five-place grid penalty for failing to slow under yellow flags.<\/p>\n

The weekend marks Lawson’s return to his regular Racing Bulls car after a successful three-race stint filling in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, where he scored 14 points.<\/p>\n

Lawson said he was excited to be “back in my car”,<\/a> although he admitted readjusting after nearly a month behind the wheel of a very different Red Bull had presented a challenge.<\/p>\n

He will be eager to make up ground and push for points in tonight’s race, with Racing Bulls locked in a tight battle for fifth in the constructors’ championship against Alpine. <\/p>\n

\"Mercedes<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain smiles during the third free practice ahead of the Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Russell returns to pole<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, George Russell took pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Formula 1 standings leader Kimi Antonelli hit the wall in qualifying Friday.<\/p>\n

With his teammate Antonelli out of the running, Russell showed why Mercedes is such a big favourite at the Baku track as he went nearly a second faster than anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I crossed the line and I saw the gap. I was shocked. I knew the lap was was great,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n

Still, he added \u201cyou can’t discount Kimi\u201d for Saturday’s race after Antonelli won from 19th on the grid at his home Italian Grand Prix this month. The 20-year-old Antonelli leads Russell by 81 points.<\/p>\n

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was .837 of a second off the pace in second and Oscar Piastri was third-fastest for McLaren, .001 further back. That was a big turnaround for Piastri after McLaren even resorted to using cable ties to hold together parts of the car’s bodywork in a chaotic Friday practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a little bit of a tricky one for us, but it\u2019s not the first time this year,” the Australian said. “I feel like we get to qualifying, we take all the fuel out and the car just comes alive more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mercedes<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain steers his car during the qualifying session for the Azerbaijan F1 Grand Prix, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar was fourth for Red Bull on his return from injury and no one else got within a second of Russell on a disappointing day for McLaren’s Lando Norris in fifth, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in sixth and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in eighth.<\/p>\n

It’s the first pole for Russell since the Austrian Grand Prix in June, which was also his last win. The long straight at Baku favours Mercedes’ engine and car design.<\/p>\n

Antonelli is set to start Saturday’s race in 16th place on the grid after he clipped the wall and damaged a wheel and suspension in the first part of qualifying. He tried to get back to the pits but the team told him to stop because there was too much damage.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes driver’s previous lap time was enough to reach the second part of qualifying but he was unable to continue.<\/p>\n

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will take place on Saturday (11pm NZT). <\/p>\n

– Additional reporting by 1News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwi Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has narrowly missed out on a top 10 start for tonight’s Azerbaijan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[238294,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-611690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-f1autoz26","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611690","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=611690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}