Abu Dhabi all going to the plan for Lawson
It was starting to turn into the perfect weekend in Abu Dhabi for Liam Lawson.
After impressing during the first free practice in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull car, Lawson jumped into his Carlin and cruised to victory in the Formula Two sprint race in Abu Dhabi.
Lawson made his opportunity on the front row count, bringing home a dominant fourth victory of the year. Duelling at dusk with Richard Verschoor, the Kiwi bided his time after an early red flag restart to slice past the reverse grid pole sitter. He built up an almost 8s margin by the chequered flag.
Felipe Drugovich mastered his tyre management to make a late charge onto the podium.
Lawson was aiming complete the weekend with victory in the feature race.
“Had a really nice race, managed to win, which is nice to at least have a win in the final weekend,” Lawson said.
“Obviously, the season hasn’t gone exactly to plan, but it’s nice to finish the year like this. Hopefully we can repeat something similar [today].”
In the Foumula 1 practice session, Lawson finished fifth in FP1, just twotenths off Red Bull main-game driver Sergio Perez and the first of a host of non-fulltime drivers also testing in the session.
Once Lawson stepped out of Verstappen’s car, the series’ reigning champion guided it to the top of the timesheets in FP2 — a feat he credited Lawson’s help with.
“I think the car was in a good window. Liam did a very good job in FP1, just calm and steady, so that’s all what we want, right?,” Verstappen told Formula1.com.
Verstappen qualified first for this morning’s season-ending GP, with Perez second, and both drivers praised the virtues of teamwork. Red Bull has already secured the drivers’ title for Verstappen and the constructors’ title as best team.
Red Bull said its aim for today’s race was to secure second place in the drivers’ standings for Perez ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to underline a dominant season.
A win for Verstappen would be his 15th of the season, extending the record he set in Mexico City last month.