Lawson wraps up “fun day” in Montreal

Liam Lawson called it a “fun day” at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after finishing inside the top ten in both Friday sessions, confident in Racing Bulls’ form despite being plagued by traffic throughout practice.

The #30 spent the opening hour of practice focused on building confidence around the street circuit-style layout of Montreal, as Racing Bulls opted to start both drivers on the medium compound — the only team to do so.

Lawson and Isack Hadjar ran closely during the first 15 minutes, comfortably inside the top ten and separated by just a tenth.

After a quick pitstop for soft tyres, Lawson’s stint was cut short when he arrived first on the scene of a crash at Turn 4, triggering the Red Flag and sending him back to the garage.

Back on track with the same set of tyres, Lawson slotted into P6 with a 1:14.305s, adding a handful of laps before heading back to the garage.

His spot in the top ten came under threat as others improved, and even after trimming three-tenths from his earlier best on the soft tyre, Lawson briefly dropped down the order — only to recover moments later with a 1:13.373s that lifted him to P7.

The Kiwi ended the session with a solid top-ten result, narrowly behind Hadjar by just one-tenth, as the rookie pair wrapped up a promising first outing in Montreal.

“I think it’s positive, it’s close as usual at the moment,” Lawson said.

“I think, personally, it’s been a fun day — it’s a cool track.

“It’s been a place I’ve wanted to come to for a long time so yeah, I enjoyed it, just very, very close.

“We need to keep pushing the limits and finding every bit of speed we can.”

Lawson’s second session got underway a few minutes later than most, with the Kiwi opting for the medium compound tyre as he began his FP2 program.

His opening six-lap stint left him down on the timesheets after Lawson set a best time of 1:13.846s — almost eight-tenths adrift of Hadjar before returning to the RB garage.

Armed with another fresh set of C5s, Lawson returned to the track midway through the session, but his run was hampered by traffic. 

Approaching Turn 6, he was disrupted by the slow-moving Alpine of Franco Colapinto which was noted by race control but ultimately dismissed, much to Lawson’s frustration.

Expressing his annoyance over team radio, Lawson was reminded by race engineer Ernesto Derniderio that traffic wouldn’t be going anywhere ahead of Qualifying, and that he’d need to adapt.

“[Traffic is] tough here,” Lawson said.

“At the end of the day, it’s… I mean, especially in Q1, it’s going to be one of those things.

“It’s a hard track to manage that, it’s just quite a small circuit, but it’s something that we… we’re all in the same boat.

“We all have to deal with it, so.”

Rising to the challenge, Lawson knuckled down and delivered a complete lap despite the chaos, stringing together three personal best sectors to clock a 1:12.751s and climb into the top ten.

He returned to the pits once more to switch focus to long-run pace, closing out Friday on a final set of mediums before completing a practice start and wrapping up the session in P10.

“The car has been very, very strong recently so as long as we keep chasing the balance through the weekend like we are then yeah, I think [a Q3 appearance is] possible, but let’s see tomorrow,” Lawson finished.

FP3 will kick off at 02:30 AEST, followed by the all-important Qualifying shootout which takes place at 06:00 AEST. 

Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

2025 Canadian Grand Prix Schedule (AEST):

Saturday, June 14th:

FP1: 03:30 – 04:30

FP2: 07:00 – 08:00

Sunday, June 15th:

FP3: 02:30 – 03:30

Qualifying: 06:00 – 07:00

Monday, June 16th:

Race: 04:00

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