Words: Richard Edwards
Published 22 August 2026
Liam Lawson says Red Bull had the pace to be “right up there” in Dutch Grand Prix sprint qualifying, despite the Kiwi missing the final shootout by the barest of margins on his first day back with the senior team.
Lawson qualified 11th for Saturday’s sprint at Zandvoort, just 0.009 seconds shy of progression to SQ3, after being drafted in at short notice to replace the injured Isack Hadjar. Hadjar is sitting out the weekend with a wrist injury, with Lawson stepping up from Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda returning to fill the vacated seat.
The 24-year-old made an immediate impression, outpacing team mate Max Verstappen in the opening segment of qualifying despite just a single hour of practice in the RB22. But he couldn’t find the same step as his rivals when it mattered in SQ2, with a snap of oversteer on his final flying lap proving costly.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. Obviously it’s been an interesting day,” Lawson says. “Normally you sort of improve through quali, and we started SQ1 quite strong, then we didn’t make the same step that everybody else did. We’ll look into it.
“There’s a lot, obviously, to learn today. So far, honestly, I feel quite good in the car. I was honestly feeling okay through quali, I thought we’d get through, so it’s a shame.”
Asked whether his quick adaptation bodes well for the rest of the weekend, Lawson is upbeat.
“It definitely does. We’ll obviously try and fix it and put it together for quali, but we definitely had the potential to be right up there today, so it’s frustrating.”
Pundits were quick to rate the Kiwi’s comeback. Formula 1’s own team-by-team analysis says Lawson impressed on his Red Bull return, matching Verstappen at times in practice before his lack of familiarity with the RB22 showed in qualifying. The Race describes the day as a good start, noting Lawson ended sprint qualifying just 0.365 seconds from Verstappen, well under half his best deficit to the Dutchman from their time together in 2025, and looked far more comfortable in the car than at any point during that troubled two-race stint. Motorsport.com’s live commentary made a similar point when Lawson went 0.17 seconds up on Verstappen in SQ1, remarking that such a gap would have been unimaginable during his first Red Bull outings.
The weekend carries extra weight for Lawson’s future prospects, coming days after Verstappen signed a contract extension keeping him at Red Bull until the end of 2030, narrowing the Kiwi’s routes back to a full-time senior seat.
Lawson starts the sprint sandwiched between the two Racing Bulls, with rookie Arvid Lindblad 10th and Tsunoda alongside the New Zealander on the sixth row in 12th.
Tsunoda, back in a race seat for the first time since losing his Red Bull drive at the end of last year, admits the new generation of cars caught him out.
“To be honest, everything feels like I’m a rookie, like brake pressure, everything is a lot different to previous years,” the Japanese driver says. “In the end, I’m pretty satisfied with the performance I had in sprint qualifying.”
At the front, George Russell claims sprint pole for Mercedes with a 1m 11.567s, edging McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.041 seconds. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third ahead of Oscar Piastri, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli fifth. Verstappen lines up sixth for Red Bull.
The sprint runs at 10pm Saturday NZ time, with full qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix to follow.
Dutch Grand Prix sprint qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1m 11.567s |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 11.608s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 11.622s |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1m 11.666s |
| 5 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 11.794s |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 12.094s |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1m 12.191s |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1m 12.578s |
| 9 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 1m 12.583s |
| 10 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 1m 12.737s |
| 11 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | 1m 13.136s |
| 12 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | 1m 13.145s |
| 13 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 1m 13.439s |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 1m 13.616s |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 1m 13.893s |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1m 14.294s |
| 17 | Ollie Bearman | Haas | 1m 14.728s |
| 18 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 1m 14.738s |
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1m 15.391s |
| 20 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 1m 15.472s |
| 21 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 1m 15.545s |
| 22 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1m 16.014s |
