While the New Zealander openly acknowledged the role of luck behind his ninth-place finish, Arvid Lindblad lost a top-10 result for the very same reason.
Another top-10 finish
After a difficult start to the season in Australia, where the opening race of the championship ended in 13th place, the last two rounds of the Formula 1 season have instead delivered rather encouraging results for Liam Lawson. While in China the New Zealander secured seventh place both in the Sprint and in the main race, at Suzuka the Racing Bulls driver confirmed his progress with another points finish, this time in ninth position.
Safety Car: pros and cons
A race that, contrary to expectations following an underwhelming qualifying performance, turned into a recovery drive shaped partly by strategy and, above all, by a stroke of fortune thanks to the Safety Car. Its deployment allowed Lawson to gain several positions and ultimately secure a place inside the top 10.
An episode that proved beneficial for the New Zealander, who was the first to admit that without it, achieving such a result would have been extremely difficult: “I’m very happy with today. Starting from where we were and the doubts we had after yesterday’s issues, the team did a great job in rebalancing the car, which led to a solid race. The first part of the race was really tough, but we managed to find a better window of performance during the Hard stint towards the end. We were also a bit lucky with the Safety Car, which helped us get into the points. Without it, it would have been difficult to finish where we did, so it’s positive to bring home a good result. It’s three points finishes in the last two races, which gives us good momentum heading into the break. I’ll spend time training and working with the team to reflect on the past month before Miami, as we continue pushing to improve.”
The exact opposite scenario, however, unfolded for his teammate Arvid Lindblad. Impressively ninth in qualifying on a track he had never raced on before, the British driver ended up among those who paid a heavy price for the Safety Car intervention following Oliver Bearman’s major crash. As a result, he dropped out of the points and slipped back to 14th place — the very position from which Lawson had started his race.
“The moment the Safety Car came out is probably what hurt us the most today. I was running in tenth at that point, and afterwards I dropped to fourteenth. From there on, we didn’t have the pace to recover. It’s a shame, but we already knew before the start that it would be more of a defensive race than an attacking one. It’s disappointing not to score points today, but congratulations to the team and to Liam. There were a few things this weekend that didn’t go our way, but I’ll use the April break to work hard and put myself in the best possible position for Miami.”
In summary, the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix highlighted the volatile nature of F1 strategy under the new regulations. While Lawson capitalizes on his recent momentum to solidify his place in the standings, Lindblad heads into the spring break looking to convert his evident qualifying speed into race-day results.
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