Lawson in seventh at Canadian GP, Russell out after leading

May 24, 2026
9:27 pm

All the action from Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix, from Montreal.

Liam Lawson misses top 10 start in Canada by hundredths of a second

Liam Lawson has finished just four hundredths of a second shy of starting inside the top 10 at Formula One’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The Kiwi set the 12th best time of Sunday’s (NZT) qualifying session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, on a day that also saw him take 11th in the sprint race.

While he’ll be disappointed by missing the chance at the top 10 after being eliminated , Lawson and Racing Bulls can take encouragement from their performances.

A hydraulic leak on Saturday saw Lawson limited to just five laps, and missed sprint qualifying altogether. And yet, come the sprint race, Lawson turned a 17th place start into an 11th place finish, and made more passes than any other driver.

That sprint drive saw him make up seven places in 23 laps, while the full-length grand prix is 70 laps.

“I’m sorry,” he said afterwards. “It was so badly driven.”

“Maybe it was a bit messy from our side,” his race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos replied.

Racing Bulls have introduced a significant upgrade package for the Canadian Grand Prix, evidenced by Lawson’s pace in the sprint, and teammate Arvid Lindblad starting in the top 10 by qualifying ninth.

At the front of the grid, Mercedes’ George Russell took pole position to go alongside his sprint race victory from earlier in the day. Russell was just 0.068s quicker than teammate Kimi Antonelli, who will start second.

The pair face an intriguing run into the first corner, after coming wheel to wheel during the sprint, and even forcing team boss Toto Wolff to intervene and tell Antonelli to calm down. Antonelli currently leads the championship, the youngest driver to ever do so.

McLaren continued its recovery after a slow start to the year, after Lando Norris took third, 0.151s back from Russell, with teammate Oscar Piastri locking out the second row in fourth.

After missing the entirety of sprint qualifying on Saturday, Lawson wasted no time in getting on track in Q1, attempting to advance.

By the time all drivers had set a lap, Lawson had posted a lap of 1m 16.117s good enough for 13th place, but just 0.282s clear of safety.

With plenty of time to improve, the Kiwi did just that, and moved inside the top 10 with a lap of 1m 14.346s to put distance between himself and elimination.

By the time Q1 ended, that time was good enough for 11th place, and 0.429s clear, albeit 0.451s behind Lindblad, who took seventh in the session.

Into Q2, where Lawson’s first push lap of 1m 16.71s was deleted for exceeding track limits. And while he was able to improve to 1m 13.897s – his best effort of the weekend – it was agonisingly short of joining his teammate in Q3.

The Canadian Grand Prix begins at 8am on Monday morning.