{"id":647341,"date":"2026-10-31T23:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T23:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647341\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T23:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T23:52:14","slug":"formula-1-liam-lawson-earns-top-10-start-in-mexican-grand-prix-despite-penalty-for-max-verstappen-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647341\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula 1: Liam Lawson earns top-10 start in Mexican Grand Prix despite penalty for Max Verstappen clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt puts us back a place, so we need to try and move forward tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

His best mark of 1m 17.029s was 0.515s off the pace set by Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton, who claimed pole position for the first time this season, 0.009s clear of Mercedes\u2019 George Russell.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is the oldest driver to secure a pole position since American Mario Andretti in 1982. <\/p>\n

Both he and Russell have the mathematical chance to claim the drivers championship this year, however that remains highly unlikely as Mercedes\u2019 Kimi Antonelli closes in on the title.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson drives at Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Photo \/ AFP<\/p>\n

Despite qualifying fifth, 0.193s off Hamilton, the 20-year-old Italian only needs to finish ninth or higher to become the youngest champion in the history of the sport. Antonelli\u2019s hopes will be boosted by Verstappen\u2019s penalty for the Lawson incident, after the former world champion qualified fourth.<\/p>\n

Even after posting the fastest times in both Friday practice sessions, Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc, of Monaco, could only manage the third-fastest time in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lawson\u2019s British teammate Arvid Lindblad was ninth, 0.088s back from the Kiwi, despite getting an extra practice session on his teammate after Racing Bulls fielded Red Bull rookie Nikola Tsolov<\/a> in the weekend\u2019s opener. <\/p>\n

The Mexican Grand Prix begins at 9am on Monday morning (NZT).<\/p>\n

Taking to the track in Q1, Lawson\u2019s first attempt at setting a lap time was wiped out when Aston Martin\u2019s Fernando Alonso stopped on track, the Spaniard triggering a red flag that ended the Kiwi\u2019s hope of posting his opening mark.<\/p>\n

Once the session resumed, Lawson\u2019s first effort of 1m 18.107s saw him temporarily in the top five. And even as he improved to 1m 18.097s, Lawson dropped down the order to advance as the 12th-fastest car, albeit safe from elimination by 0.533s.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Lawson and Max Verstappen were both punished for an on-track incident in Friday’s second practice session. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Into Q2, Lawson improved again to post a lap of 1m 17.628s to sit inside the top 10, but not safe as other cars began to post faster laps behind him. With pressure on to advance, the Kiwi went even better once again, posting a lap of 1m 17.207s that saw the end of McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri, as a moral win for New Zealand over Australia.<\/p>\n

Needing to finish ninth or higher to earn a top 10 start when the lights go out on Monday, Lawson\u2019s first effort in Q3, 1m 17.357s, was slower than he managed to escape Q2, as Racing Bulls ran their drivers on a used set of tyres.<\/p>\n

And staring at a 10th place start, Lawson timing his best effort at the end of Q3 saw him clear not just Lindblad, but Alpine\u2019s Frenchman Pierre Gasly too, to put himself on course for a 14th grand prix points finish of the year.<\/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":"\u201cIt puts us back a place, so we need to try and move forward tomorrow.\u201d His best mark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53396,1875,3019,127,42610,11766,2082,29188,10813,55281,42,78,296,47525,20409,33813,34598,43,316770,48211,23941,47527,45434,4497,40,38,111055,41,39,169573],"class_list":["post-647341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-53396","tag-carrying","tag-clash","tag-despite","tag-earned","tag-earns","tag-for","tag-formula","tag-grand","tag-grid","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-into","tag-lawson","tag-liam","tag-max","tag-mexican","tag-news","tag-oneplace","tag-ones","tag-penalty","tag-prix","tag-qualifying","tag-start","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-top10","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-verstappen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647341","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=647341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}