Kiwi ace Lawson nearer to finding right formula

Kiwi driving ace Liam Lawson’s season has had a much-needed boost with a podium finish in the Formula 2 race at Silverstone and Red Bull promoting him to be Formula 1 reserve driver.

Lawson’s promotion follows the dumping last week of Juri Vips from the team for making a racist slur in a video game livestream he was playing with Lawson.

Vips had been the Red Bull F1 No 1 reserve driver and Lawson, 20, steps in to the role and will also be reserve driver for AlphaTauri, the backup team to Red Bull. So if Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez for Red Bull, or Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda for AlphaTauri are unable to line up for a race, Lawson is the first driver who will be called upon.

‘‘Liam Lawson steps into that role, obviously following the Juri Vips announcement,’’ Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said at Silverstone.

New regulations stipulate that F1 teams must run a rookie driver at two free practice sessions.

Lawson, who is driving for Carlin in F2, is keen to grasp that opportunity, but for now is focusing on F2, with his season looking brighter after leaping from 10th in the standings to fifth with his third placing at Silverstone.

Lawson had a rough start in the sprint race on Saturday, with his car sustaining front wing damage, but he did well in qualifying, leading to him starting fifth on the grid in the main race, which US driver and Carlin team-mate Logan Sargeant won from Theo Pourchaire, with Lawson third.

‘‘Overall, I would say it was an OK weekend,’’ said Lawson.

The next race is at Spielberg in Austria this weekend.