Lawson surprised by Verstappen: Why was he able to beat the Dutchman?

15:10, 05 Aug

Updated: 15:57, 05 Aug

byLudo van Denderen

At the start of the season, Liam Lawson was demoted to Racing Bulls from Red Bull Racing, because the gap was far too great between him and teammate Max Verstappen. In Hungary, however, the New Zealander proved he could indeed push the pedal to the metal. He even stayed ahead of Verstappen.

Lawson crossed the finish line in eighth place at the Hungaroring, a few seconds ahead of Verstappen. The fact that the Dutchman did not manage to overtake him surprised the Racing Bulls driver, he told GPblog among others.

"A little bit," responded Lawson. "I mean at the start he was very fast. But I also saw the first turn of the race, he was very quick at the start, he got me in the first lap. And then I think they struggled more with tyres."

"So I was kind of hoping it was would be the same [in the second stint], so I knew if I kept him there for a few laps, maybe he would start to drop and I think that's more or less what happened."

Liam Lawson finished ahead of Max Verstappen in Hungary

Lawson 'satisfied' in Hungary

All in all, Lawson has had quite a good final weekend before the summer break, was his conclusion after the Grand Prix. "Yeah, pretty happy with the race. The car's been very good recently, especially in the race. Honestly, our long run pace has been very, very good."

"We seem to, as of right now, have a decent handle on the tyres, which is really tough honestly this year in the race. So yes, ultimate pace I think, had we started a bit higher up we honestly had the potential to finish higher as well. So I think that's probably the learnings from the weekend. Happy with the race," he concluded.