30/06/2025
NEWS STORY
A masterpiece of understatement from Liam Lawson following his best F1 result to date.
It was all looking so good, the Kiwi had finally made it to the big team, where he was partnering Max Verstappen.
However, after just two races the youngster found himself back at RB, as the poisoned chalice that is the second seat at Red Bull was handed to Yuki Tsunoda.
Increasingly it is clear that it isn't the drivers of the second car that are at fault but the car itself, and while Lawson might still be feeling justifiably bruised by the experience, Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix finally gave the youngster the opportunity for redemption.
"It's been a very, very tough race," he told Sky Sports at race end. "I don't even know how I survived it, to be honest."
He was referring to the Turn 3 incident which saw him almost taken out by Kimi Antonelli.
"I thought when I saw Kimi coming, I was like okay, this is over, but somehow we got out of it," said the New Zealander. "Then the speed was good. We made the one stop work, which was the key today for us with today's temperatures. I wasn't sure about it, but the team knew so I'm very, very happy.
"It's been a very tough year," he admitted. "It's been very emotional and very, very tough to just secure a result. So to do that today is really, really cool.
"It's obviously one good weekend," he continued. "But I felt the speed's been really, really good recently, and practice at the last few races, I felt really good.
"So it was nice to do that yesterday," he added, referring to the fact that he qualified sixth, ahead of his former teammate Verstappen, "but in the back of my mind, I obviously knew that today was the important one, and for us, we now need to just keep this momentum going forward."
Obviously keen to consign his Red Bull experience to history, he didn't allow himself to be pushed on the matter other than to say: "I had two races and I honestly didn't get to grips with it at all in that time.
"I worked my whole career to get to Red Bull Racing, so obviously it was a tough start of the season," he added. "I'm comfortable in this car right now, and especially this weekend.
"At the moment I'm just very, very focused on converting these weekends, and it's nice to have this one, but we have a long season ahead.
"It's a great result, but it's only the second points finish this season, and that's not enough. So we need to keep doing this going forward."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Zeltweg here.