Liam Lawson had his fastest time deleted for going wide at a corner. Photo: AFP / Lillian Suwanrumpha
Kiwi Liam Lawson has found himself in the wars again, as he was left swearing at a rival's driving during the sprint qualifying session at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Lawson failed to progress to the top 10 for the third qualifying session for tomorrow's sprint event, after he had his time deleted for going wide at a corner.
He went wide to avoid Charles Leclerc, who was on a cooldown lap in the middle of the track.
"What the f*** was that,'' an exasperated Lawson said on the team radio.
When told that he had exceeded track limits at turn 19, Lawson responded: "Maybe where the car was sitting in the middle of the f****** road."
Lawson had left it late to emerge from the garage and was the last driver to try to set a fast lap. Lewis Hamilton, who was also cooling down, had let him pass, but shortly after, the Kiwi had to take evasive action to avoid Leclerc.
The end result will see Lawson start from 15 in tomorrow's sprint. The US Grand Prix main race is on Monday NZT.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri with a sizzling final lap to take pole position for the sprint race.
Lawson had finished 15th in the first practice session with a time 1.325 seconds slower than Norris, who was fastest ahead of Nico Hulkenberg for Sauber, with Norris' McLaren teammate Piastri third.
"We got hit by traffic on our laps, so we'll have a look tonight on whether we should have run earlier in the session, as opposed to later, which may have mitigated the issue," Lawson said after the day's racing.
"However, there are positives to take away, as the car is very fast.
"Points will be tricky, but we'll be pushing for that and will continue to work on building a strong car for Sunday."
Lawson is in a battle to save his seat in the Red Bull stable for next year and will find out his Formula One future by the end of the month.
Verstappen tops sprint qualifying
In the sprint, Verstappen went around the Circuit of the Americas with a best effort of 1m 32.143s, after Norris - who set the pace in the first two phases and also the weekend's sole practice session - had put his car on provisional pole.
Norris was 0.071s slower than his Dutch rival, who has beaten both McLaren drivers in the last three regular grands prix, but remains 63 points behind championship leader Piastri.
With eight points on offer to the winner of Saturday's 100km race, he and Norris - 22 points behind Piastri - both have a good chance to reduce the gap to the Australian, who was three-tenths slower than his teammate.
"It worked out well, but I still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the sprint," said four-time world champion Verstappen, who has been the king of the sprints, with 12 wins and now 10 poles, since the format was first introduced in 2021.
"The wind was coming up and down, very gusty. The track is very bumpy as well, so the cars can easily step out on you in the high speed.
"In a qualifying like that, you have to leave a few margins here and there, but for us, this has been a very good day."
McLaren have already won the constructors' championship for the second year in a row and are chasing the team's first drivers' title since seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton opened his account in 2008.
Norris started the main race on pole position last year, and will hope to make a clean and quick getaway, without tangling with either Verstappen or Piastri, as he did in the previous race in Singapore.
"Of course, I would've loved to have been on pole, but it's not a surprise for us to be just a bit slower than the Red Bull, but still pretty happy," the Briton told reporters.
"I don't know how much I was off by, but a little couple of things here and there I could've improved on, and just caught a few bumps a little bit wrong, I'd say, but that's just the difficulty of this track."
Piastri said he could have done better.
"I think a pretty scruffy lap, to be honest," added the Australia. "I just didn't really get it together.
"I feel a bit fortunate to be third, but I think the pace in the car is good."
Hulkenberg was an impressive fourth fastest, with George Russell - winner in Singapore - fifth for Mercedes and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso sixth.
Williams had Carlos Sainz qualifying seventh, while Hamilton will start only eighth for Ferrari, but ahead of teammate Leclerc in 10th.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli lines up 11th, one spot ahead of Lawson's Racing Bulls teammate, Isack Hadjar.
Yuki Tsunoda, who was promoted to the Red Bull line-up at the expense of Lawson earlier in the season, qualified 18th of the 20 drivers.
- RNZ Sport/Reuters
