Formula 1: Liam Lawson 12th in final Japanese Grand Prix practice, qualifying looms

Liam Lawson logged the 12th-fastest time in the final practice session before Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. In his first race weekend back at Racing Bulls after his demotion from Red Bull’s senior ranks , the Kiwi added another 19 laps to his tally, as he reacclimatises to the VCARB02. Those laps take Lawson’s tally to 60 across the Grand Prix’s three sessions, greater than the length of Sunday’s race, 53.

In his one timed lap in practice three, the last before qualifying, Lawson recorded a best time of 1m 29.104s, and was 1.139s off McLaren’s Lando Norris, who set the fastest time of the session with 1m 27.



965s. Given that teams trial a number of different car and tyre set-ups, though, Lawson’s fastest lap in practice three was slower than his best effort of practice two , 1m 28.599s, to show that the Kiwi still has more to give when qualifying gets under way later on Saturday night.

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