Racing Bulls Secures Double Top-10 Finish in Brazil Grand Prix
Racing Bulls made a strong return to the points table after three consecutive scoreless weekends, achieving a double top-10 finish with Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar securing seventh and eighth positions at Interlagos. Despite surviving a tense final-lap incident, the team celebrated a solid performance that highlighted their resilience and strategic prowess.
Lawson executed a bold one-stop strategy that proved successful, but he faced intense pressure from Hadjar and several midfield competitors in the closing laps. This battle, however, was not featured on the live broadcast as the focus remained on the duel between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen for second place in the Formula 1 Brazil Grand Prix.
On the final lap, Hadjar attempted a daring move around the outside of Turn 1, but the maneuver led to wheel-to-wheel contact with Lawson as they approached the apex of the corner. Hadjar managed to maintain control of his car with a snap of oversteer, while Lawson secured a hard-fought seventh place after a grueling 52-lap stint on medium tires.
Following the race, Hadjar admitted he had pushed his teammate a bit too aggressively during the unseen clash. “I pushed it a little too much,” he told Sky. “But honestly, it was very fun. He went on a one-stop and on the very last lap, I’m in his gearbox. I think you can’t do any better than that. And I tried and I overdid it, kind of my mistake.”
Lawson, who is known for his aggressive driving style, did not see any issue with Hadjar’s move, even though contact between teammates is generally discouraged. “He was going for a move. It’s the type of corner that curves in and he’s obviously trying to clear me before the braking and I think just misjudged it,” Lawson explained. “But we both came out of it, so it was okay, and more importantly, for the team to have two cars seventh and eighth is great today. It’s the last lap of a race. Honestly, as much as it’s the ideal thing to do, there’s no way that we’re not going to race for a position like that. So I respect that obviously we’re lucky that we came out of it but it’s been a great weekend for the team.”
Team principal Alan Permane praised the drivers for their competitive spirit, stating, “They ended up racing each other, which we trusted them to do.”
Meanwhile, Hadjar expressed dissatisfaction with the timing of his first pit stop. The Frenchman was leading the midfield battle in fifth when he was undercut by Haas’ Oliver Bearman, who finished ahead of both Racing Bulls cars. Hadjar emerged behind Bearman and the second Haas of Esteban Ocon, who was on older medium tires. His race engineer later apologized for an error in the team’s strategy tools.
Despite the setback, Hadjar acknowledged the positive aspects of the race. “It’s not a good day for me. The strategy on the first stint was not good. We lost a bit of time. We tried to make up for it. But we didn’t have an amazing pace for that. We had a very good Sunday, points-wise. It helps us for sixth place. But it’s not a good day for me.”
The Anglo-Italian team now heads into the final triple-header with 82 points, 10 more than seventh-placed Aston Martin and 12 points ahead of Haas, which has been performing strongly with an impressive Oliver Bearman over the past two weekends.
