Lawson steps up as Red Bull super-sub to finish seventh at Zandvoort despite penalty

Liam Lawson finished seventh for Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, impressing team boss Laurent Mekies with a measured drive at Zandvoort after stepping in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Isack Hadjar. The 24-year-old New Zealander started eighth and gained a position when Max Verstappen crashed out in the sister RB22.

Mekies praised Lawson’s adaptability given the circumstances. “It’s so difficult nowadays to jump from a team to another, so I think Liam did what he could,” the Red Bull Formula 1 boss said. “He obviously did a very good job in qualifying yesterday being only a tenth away from Max. Today was a bit of a race on his own. He took the points of seventh place and that’s probably the best he could have done today.”

Lawson’s afternoon was not without incident. He received a 10-second penalty on lap 55 for failing to slow for a single yellow flag at Turn 3 after Esteban Ocon stopped at the following corner. However, with eighth-placed Nico Hulkenberg finishing a full lap behind him, the sanction had no bearing on his final classification.

The result came after a more difficult sprint race, where Lawson started and finished 11th. He had moved across from Racing Bulls to the senior team solely due to Hadjar’s wrist injury, making Zandvoort his first Red Bull race since two difficult outings at the start of the 2025 season.

“Today was hard, honestly,” Lawson said. “The first lap was quite fun, but from then, honestly, we just struggled for pace to match the front guys. Probably not that hard — we really struggled to keep up with the front teams, but I’m sure there’s stuff I can learn from.”

Lawson, who sits ninth in the drivers’ championship, acknowledged he would study the yellow flag incident and take lessons from the weekend as a whole. Whether he returns to Racing Bulls for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza or remains at Red Bull has not yet been confirmed.