Racing Bulls boss hails Lawson's 'near-perfect race' in Belgium

Liam Lawson’s eighth place finish in the Belgian Grand Prix received a glowing review from his new boss.

“Liam had a near-perfect race,” said Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane.

“He was strong and able to comfortably pull away from [Kick Sauber’s] Bortoleto behind and was very happy with the car overall.”

Wet conditions at Spa-Francorchamps saw drivers begin the race behind a safety car, with the 23-year-old starting at ninth on the grid behind teammate Isack Hadjar.

Lawson overtook his fellow Racing Bulls driver on lap 12, allowing him to swap from wet to dry tyres a lap earlier than Hadjar.

“It's always tricky when you cross over to a dry tyre when it's damp, but the car was fast and in clean air we had great pace,” said Lawson.

“Often in those conditions you just want to survive, so I'm very happy for the team and how everything came together.”

Lawson successfully pulled off a one-pit stop strategy on his way to securing points.

His teammate Hadjar dropped to the bottom of the pack after technical issues forced a lack of pace and a second pit stop.

McLaren topped the table with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris taking out first and second respectively.

Lawson achieved his third points finish of the 2025 season and plans to keep his foot on the gas at next week’s race in Hungary, ahead of a month-long break.

“Now we need to keep the momentum rolling forward and make sure we enter the summer break on a high,” said Lawson.

Permane also expressed optimism about the upcoming race.

“It’ll be much hotter, and we’ve got different tyres, but we expect our car to perform well there,” he said.