{"id":625989,"date":"2026-10-10T02:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T02:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625989\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T02:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T02:34:11","slug":"lawson-to-start-8th-for-singapore-sprint-as-f1-future-hangs-in-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625989\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawson to start 8th for Singapore sprint as F1 future hangs in balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has qualified eighth for tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix sprint race, as uncertainty continues over whether he will retain his Racing Bulls seat<\/a> next season.<\/p>\n

At the front of the field, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed pole position ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n

Lawson reached the final stage of sprint qualifying (Q3) around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, setting a fastest lap time of 1m 32.341s. <\/p>\n

The Kiwi initially qualified ninth but was bumped up a place after Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar had his final lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits. <\/p>\n

Speaking to media post-qualifying, Lawson said he was “pretty happy”<\/a> with his result after struggling for pace earlier. <\/p>\n

“Honestly we weren’t that strong earlier today, but we made some changes. Maybe [temperatures] cooling off helped us as well,” he said. <\/p>\n

“We’re in a good place. Isack [Hadjar] will be fast behind, so I’m sure it will be tough to keep him there for the race.” <\/p>\n

The result puts Lawson in the final points-paying position on the grid, with only the top eight finishers awarded points in sprint races.<\/p>\n

He will be chasing his third sprint points finish of the season, having previously scored in China and at Silverstone. <\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson of New Zealand driving the (30) Visa Cash App Racing Bulls VCARB 03 at Singapore (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

It also marked a significant improvement from his difficult outing in Singapore last year, when crashes in two practice sessions disrupted his weekend before he finished 15th. <\/p>\n

Following his victory at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen will be eyeing a win around the only circuit on the calendar where he has yet to win a grand prix. <\/p>\n

Lawson’s teammate Arvid Lindblad will start from 17th after suffering an early qualifying elimination. <\/p>\n

The 21-lap sprint race will take place at 10pm tonight (NZT). <\/p>\n

Racing Bulls boss ‘not in a rush’ to decide Lawson’s future<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson of New Zealand and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and Alan Permane. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane has said there is no urgency in deciding whether to retain Lawson for the 2027 season. <\/p>\n

Lawson and Lindblad are two of the only drivers on the grid yet to have their seats confirmed for next year, while Formula 2 driver Nikola Tsolov has also been linked to a seat at Racing Bulls. <\/p>\n

When asked when a confirmation could be expected soon, Permane told print media: \u201cI don’t want to give a definite date, that’s not going to work.” <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be in the coming weeks. We’re not in a rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows we’ve got two fantastic drivers, we’ve got a fantastic driver in F2 at the moment.”<\/p>\n

Permane said the team wanted to ensure it made the right decision, acknowledging that “three doesn’t fit into two”. <\/p>\n

Several media reported that sources had indicated Lawson and Lindblad were both likely to be retained, despite there being no official announcement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson has qualified eighth for tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix sprint race, as uncertainty continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2300,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-625989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625989","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=625989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}