Lawson pays the price for tyre misjudgement in Canadian Qualifying

Liam Lawson was left searching for answers after a deflating Qualifying performance in Montreal, where a costly call on tyre prep and a lack of grip saw him slump to his worst Saturday result since China.

Originally destined to start the 70-lap battle from 19th on the grid, a ten-place grid penalty handed to Lawson’s former Racing Bulls teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, for overtaking under Red Flag conditions during the final hour of practice boosts the #30 into P18. 

As for his current teammate, Isack Hadjar managed to stretch his qualifying campaign for the whole hour shootout, crossing the line with the ninth fastest time of the session.

Much to Hadjar’s dismay, a costly lapse of judgment from the RB pit wall saw the #6 impede Carlos Sainz’s final Q1 run, leaving a strong possibility that the stewards will hand Hadjar at least a three-place grid drop.

As the light went green to start Qualifying in Canada though, it was Lawson who had the edge over his teammate as he narrowly outpaced Hadjar on his first flying lap with a time of 1:13.049s.

On his next run, the #30 shaved three-tenths off that time, managing to stay just outside the elimination zone until a Williams-induced Red Flag triggered a pause on the session.

When qualifying resumed with five minutes on the clock, the Kiwi took a different approach to tyre warm-up, regrettably skipping out on an additional build-up lap before his last-ditch attempt.

Across the lap, the 23-year-old made enough gains to record his revised fastest lap of the session, a 1:12.525s, however, it didn’t translate to a positional shift, leaving Lawson was a disappointing P19 finish on Saturday. 

Having finished both Friday practice sessions inside the top ten and this morning’s FP3 in P13, the lacklustre result came as a surprise to both onlookers and the team, with Lawson admitting he had “no idea” why RB fell off.

“To be honest, we’ve been struggling to make the tyre work on the first lap all weekend, honestly,” Lawson said.

“The first run in Q1, I had to do a build-lap to have them in the right window, and we didn’t do a build-lap for the last run and I just didn’t have much grip through the lap.

“So yeah, it’s pretty disappointing… [the car has] been fast, so…”

The Kiwi added: “We had [to do the build-up lap] but once you kind of commit, you know, to the lap or halfway through the lap, by then, you’ve used a lot of the tyre.

“You know, I could have aborted and then start the next lap, but then the tyres are again not in the right window, so it’s… you kind of have to commit to it early on.

“And yeah, we just tried to make it work on the first lap — as most people did to be fair — and it just didn’t work for us.”

The Kiwi has a difficult Sunday drive ahead of him, with the run to the first braking zone alongside home racer Lance Stroll his first priority as the lights go out. 

The Canadian Grand Prix will kick off at 04:00 AEST.

Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/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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