With the 23-year-old in eighth position at the time of his only pit stop, the decision to change for soft tyres with 19 laps to go didn’t yield the return Racing Bulls had hoped for, as the tight nature of Suzuka left Lawson unable to make any overtakes to finish the race, even on quicker tyres.
While the soft tyres did give Lawson faster pace when he emerged from the pits, there were too many laps left in the Grand Prix for the move to work in the way Racing Bulls would have wanted, even as he managed to complete the race on a one-stop strategy. Of the 20 drivers, 14 finished on the hard tyre, with Lawson and Williams’ Carlos Sainz the only two on softs at the end.
Ultimately, the attempt to go long on Lawson’s first stint – pitting after 34 laps – didn’t pay off, as the drivers at the front of the grid pitted early, and finished on the slower compound to guarantee track position.
Leaving Lawson on track for so long in his opening stint on medium tyres was a gamble worth taking. However, the rain that was forecast to arrive at Suzuka ultimately failed to materialise, and ruined what could have been a good result for the Kiwi as he rebuilds his Red Bull career.
Despite the struggles of Red Bull’s RB21, Lawson’s stablemate Max Verstappen took the chequered flag for his first victory of 2025, in his bid for a fifth straight world championship.
The win was Verstappen’s fourth in succession at Suzuka, with no other driver having won the race since Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in 2019 – given the race wasn’t held for two years during Covid-19.
McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second and third respectively, further increasing the team’s lead at the top of the constructors championship.
Verstappen’s win, though, cuts Norris’ lead at the top of the drivers championship to just one point, as the perfect farewell for engine supplier Honda, who leave Red Bull at the end of 2025 to join Aston Martin.
Meanwhile, Lawson’s Red Bull rival Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line in 12th place after starting 14th, while Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar came away with a very impressive eighth, to net his first four championship points. In fact, so slim were overtaking chances, no driver made up more positions than Tsunoda’s two – seeing him named as driver as the day.
While Lawson did admirably to hold his starting position of 13th from Tsunoda into turn one, it was only a matter of time before the speed advantage of Red Bull’s RB21 told.
And as the hometown hero pushed hard on his opening stint, Tsunoda got past Lawson by the end of the first lap, as the pair swapped their 13th and 14th placings.
But while Lawson struggled to keep pace with Tsunoda in the early laps, the Kiwi showed his composure to keep the Williams of Sainz at bay.
Sainz qualified 12th, showing his speed advantage at Suzuka, but was dropped to 15th after being penalised for impeding Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Liam Lawson during the Japanese Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images
However, despite at times being just 0.4s behind Lawson, the Kiwi was able to defend in Suzuka’s DRS zone, and pushed his lead out to more than one second to keep hold of 14th place in his first stint.
Given Suzuka’s nature of being difficult to overtake, pit strategy was key for drivers in any attempts to gain positions. As George Russell was the first to pit, the Mercedes emerged down in 13th, one place above Lawson, and at the very least broke any chance of catching Tsunoda before his first stop.
But as Russell got past both Lawson and Tsunoda, and closed the gap between the two, the Red Bull headed for the pits on lap 23, as the Kiwi rose as high as eighth.
A fresh set of tyres for Hadjar saw him overtake Sainz for ninth, and then Lawson, as both cars held off on their first stops. Both drivers lost a place to Sainz’s Williams teammate Alex Albon, as the Kiwi fell to 10th, before finally pitting on lap 34.
But after close to 30 laps holding off Sainz, the four-time Grand Prix winner’s experience ultimately told, and overtook Lawson on lap 37 thanks to the soft tyres.
From there, though, the advantages of the soft tyres weren’t seen. Both drivers made up ground on Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber, but couldn’t overtake until the final stages of the race.
Sainz managed to get past Hulkenberg on lap 48, and Jack Doohan’s Alpine on lap 51 to finish 14th. Lawson, though, couldn’t do the same, as the Kiwi crossed the line 17th, despite a late dash to the finish.
The Formula One season continues on April 14, as the 10 teams head to the Middle East for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.
