Formula 1 result: Liam Lawson takes eighth place at Belgian Grand Prix, comprehensively beats Racing Bulls teammate

“It’s always tricky when you have to cross over on to a dry tyre when it’s damp. To be honest, I didn’t feel like it was ready, but we made the call.

“It was tricky to survive that, but from there, the car was very fast.

“It’s been a case where the results have come, and that’s great. I think the pace has been there for a while, honestly.

“But it’s nice to have a couple of results, we just need to keep it rolling. One more [race] until the break, I need to finish this part of the year with another good race.”

With a potential opening to partner Max Verstappen in Red Bull’s senior ranks next year, Hadjar now hasn’t scored a point for four consecutive grands prix, after crossing the line seventh in Spain.

In that time, Lawson has managed a career-best finish of sixth in Austria, before crossing the line eighth at Spa-Francorchamps. Eighth also equals Lawson’s performance from Monaco this year, where he effectively set the platform for Hadjar to finish sixth.

Monday’s result pushes Lawson to 14th in the drivers’ championship on 16 points, level with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Carlos Sainz but ahead in the standings, courtesy of his Belgium finish.

At the front of the grid, Oscar Piastri’s first-lap overtake on teammate Lando Norris proved decisive, as McLaren took a one-two finish to further cement themselves as favourites for the drivers’ and the constructors’ title.

Piastri has extended his championship lead over Norris to 16 points, while extending McLaren’s advantage to 268 points over Ferrari.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium in third, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s hold on his title of world champion slipped even further into one of the McLaren’s hands by finishing fourth.

After qualifying ninth in dry conditions on Sunday (NZT), Lawson’s race was altered by the Belgian rain – which had been notably absent across the first two days of the weekend.

However, as the formation lap began behind the safety car, race control was given no choice but to red-flag the start of the race, because of the amount of water on track, and the danger it presented to cars following one another.

But after a delay of more than an hour, the race was cleared to get under way, in its full 44-lap distance. With the race finally getting under way behind the safety car, more water was cleared off the surface, leading to a rolling start on lap five.

As the green flag was waved, Lawson was less than a second back from Hadjar in eighth, even with no drag reduction system (DRS) because of the wet conditions, and managed to stay more than a second ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber.

The Kiwi remained hot on the heels of his teammate, as an overtake would have had Lawson as Racing Bulls’ lead car, and in position to pit before Hadjar when the time to fit slick tyres came.

On lap 12, Lawson managed to get around Hadjar and up into eighth place, at the same time as the first cars headed for the pits, allowing himself to receive preferential treatment from his team.

One lap later, Lawson pitted ahead of Hadjar as the DRS was enabled, and was able to undercut Yuki Tsunoda – albeit losing a place to Sir Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari in the process.

Hadjar, meanwhile, dropped further and further down the grid, as the importance of Lawson’s overtake became more and more evident.

In the top 10, Lawson was in range of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, who had started in 14th. But Lawson’s ability to defend led to ructions within Sauber, as Hulkenberg’s inability to get around the Kiwi saw complaints from teammate Bortoleto, before the pair were ordered to swap positions.

Past the halfway point, drivers began to complain of degradation on their medium tyres, as teams considered aborting their one-stop strategies.

Lawson pushed his lead over Bortoleto to more than five seconds, even if the gap to Hamilton in front effectively wiped out any chance of finishing seventh or higher.

With less than 10 laps to go, Lawson remained on his set of mediums, with effectively no threat from any cars behind, and managed to get to the end to complete his one-stop strategy without issue.

The Formula One season continues with the Hungarian Grand Prix, as the final race before the mid-season summer break.

Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.