Liam Lawson has produced one of the strongest defensive drives of his Formula One career to finish seventh at the Canadian Grand Prix, securing six points for Racing Bulls and lifting himself to tenth in the world drivers’ championship.
The Hastings driver started the race twelfth on the grid after a difficult Saturday in Montreal, but moved up to eleventh before the lights went out when his rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad failed to take the start. From there, Lawson worked his way through the field on a chaotic afternoon at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, gaining places on the opening lap and settling into eighth before George Russell’s Mercedes ground to a halt with a power unit failure on lap 30. That promoted Lawson to seventh, where he stayed despite intense late pressure from Pierre Gasly’s faster Alpine.
The closing laps turned into the kind of rearguard action that has defined Lawson’s reputation since he stepped up to a full-time Formula One seat. With Gasly hounding him on fresher tyres, the New Zealander kept the Alpine behind without putting a wheel wrong. Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane described it as a masterclass of defending against a clearly faster car.
“After a difficult start to the weekend, finishing in P7 is definitely a good result for us, so it’s nice to bring home points for the team,” Lawson told reporters after the race, as reported by Speedcafe. “Overall, it wasn’t an easy race. We made up some ground from where we started, but we also struggled with the balance of the car and lacked some speed throughout.”
Tyre management was the central challenge on a circuit where surface temperatures were on the lower side. “The biggest challenge was to maintain the correct temperature on the tyres as we were only able to do it during the flat-out laps,” Lawson said. On the soft tyres for the run to the flag, he was unable to match the Alpines on outright pace but found enough through traction and braking zones to hold his line.
“The Alpines were faster than us today and Pierre didn’t give me an easy time at the end of the race when I was on the soft tyres, so I’m happy to have defended my position,” Lawson added.
The six points lift Lawson to 16 in the drivers’ championship and tenth in the standings after five rounds, his second points finish of the season. They also push Racing Bulls into sixth in the constructors’ championship, two points clear of Haas, in what has become a tight midfield battle. The result was particularly important given Lindblad’s failure to start, leaving the team relying on Lawson alone to deliver.
At the front, Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli took his fourth consecutive grand prix win, leading home Lewis Hamilton in second and Max Verstappen third. Russell’s retirement, combined with Antonelli’s win, has extended the Italian teenager’s championship lead to 43 points and turned what was meant to be a multi-driver title fight into a runaway. Antonelli is now the dominant story of the 2026 season, with the new ground-effect regulations clearly suiting the Mercedes package.
For Lawson, the Canadian result will be quietly satisfying after a rocky start to his second full season. He spent the early rounds searching for confidence in a Racing Bulls chassis that has been inconsistent across track types, and was caught up in a procedural fine for himself and the team earlier in the Montreal weekend. The New Zealand Herald reported the result as Lawson’s return to the points after a difficult opening run of races.
The drive in the race itself was the kind of mature racecraft display that the paddock has been waiting to see from him. Defending against a faster car for the better part of fifteen laps without making a mistake is one of the harder things to do in modern Formula One, where DRS and quick tyre degradation usually punish any error. Lawson made none. RNZ reported that Antonelli now sits 43 points clear at the top, with Lawson the only New Zealander in the points.
Attention now turns to Monaco, with the European leg of the calendar opening in a fortnight. The tight street layout has historically suited cars that punch above their straight-line weight, so Racing Bulls may be in better shape there than they were on the long straights of Montreal. “I’m excited to get back to racing in Monaco in a couple of weeks as we look ahead to the European stretch of the season,” Lawson said.
For a New Zealander who only a year ago looked at risk of losing his Formula One seat altogether, finishing seventh on merit at a Canadian Grand Prix where Bruce McLaren once stood on the top step is the kind of week the country’s motorsport community will quietly toast. The points are useful. The drive was better.
What do you think of Lawson’s performance and his prospects for Monaco and the European leg of the season? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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