Kiwi newcomer Liam Lawson has sent a message to his rivals — and his Red Bull bosses — that he is in Formula 1 to stay, unleashing a stunning qualifying performance at the United States Grand Prix at Austin, Texas.
At his first event since replacing Aussie Daniel Ricciardo behind the wheel of the Honda, the rookie produced the third-fastest time in the first stage of qualifying, clocking 1m 33.339s around the 5.5km Circuit of the Americas.
With 15 progressing to the second stage, he was only slower than four-time defending champion and championship leader Max Verstappen (1m 33.046s), and Frenchman Charles Leclerc (1m 33.241s), with many other seasoned veterans in his wake.
Lawson, 22, was already destined to start at the back of the grid for Monday's race, inheriting Ricciardo's penalty for exceeding engine limits, so he elected not to contest the second stage of qualifying, leaving his opponents to wonder at his potential.
His time would have placed eighth in Q2 and ninth in Q3. Just as importantly, Lawson was faster than Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda, his main rival for a fulltime seat with Red Bull beyond 2024.
"From my side, just happy to put the lap together," he said. "I put the performance there and showed the speed we felt from P1 yesterday... the car felt good.
"I knew that, if the speed was there in the first session, we probably had a bit more to find, so we made some changes to the car going into qualy and I think they were really positive.
"All good learnings and I was just happy to put that lap together."
Brit Lando Norris eventually took pole position, heading off Verstappen with 1m 32.330s for the day's fastest time.
Lawson has already made his presence felt among the top drivers, earning the ire of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, 43, during the earlier sprint race.
The Spaniard did not take kindly to having the Kiwi supposedly impeding his progress — Lawson finished two places ahead in 16th — and visited his rival's garage to express his dissatisfaction. Alonso also made a point of driving close to Lawson as they headed off on their qualifying laps, before finishing eighth.
Lawson has six races to prove to his team he is worth retaining, but remains undaunted by the prospect of starting at the back of the field tomorrow.
"Qualy is one thing and the race is something else," he said. "In today's race, we struggled, but I'll learn quite a lot.
"It's probably going to be quite tricky... I just want to take away as much as I can into the next few races."
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