Liam Lawson ends 49-year New Zealand drought: 'I was very lucky to survive'

Liam Lawson was left to reflect on "an incredibly tough year" after securing a breakthrough result that ended a 49-year wait for New Zealand.

In finishing sixth in the Austrian Grand Prix, not only did Lawson secure his best result of his 22-race F1 career, but it was also his home country's best since Chris Amon was fifth in the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix.

When mentioned to Lawson by RacingNews365 after the race at the Red Bull Ring, a beaming smile broke out on his face. "Is it really?" he replied. "That's pretty cool.

"Obviously, for New Zealand, it's great as well. A few Kiwis are coming up, and hopefully in the future, we can have some more of them on the way into Formula 1."

The result was naturally a relief for Lawson, who took full advantage of the lap one crash involving Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes teenager Kimi Antonelli to finish the race in the position he started.

Although Lawson was eighth in Monaco recently, it was clear from his reaction that this result meant so much more.

"It's been an incredibly tough year, a very tough year with a lot of potential," said Lawson, who was demoted by Red Bull after two grands prix, returning to the 'junior' team.

"I came into F1, had a few races, and most of them converted very well. Sometimes you can have all the confidence and speed in the world, and they don't, and it's felt like that this year.

"So to finally have a result is amazing, but we need to keep doing this."

A very lucky moment for Lawson

It was a result, however, that nearly did not happen thanks to Antonelli's moment of braking hell into Turn 3.

On the run up the hill to the sharp right-hander, Antonelli suffered a severe lock-up. As he skidded his way through the corner, he clipped the right-hand side of Lawson's car, forcing him off track, before taking out four-time F1 champion Verstappen.

Lawson lost three places as a result, but his car was mercifully undamaged.

"I've seen it [the incident] now, and, obviously, he was trying to avoid all of us who were slowing down," said Lawson.

"On lap one, everyone backs up a lot. I know it wasn't on purpose. We were very lucky to survive. I don't actually know how. I thought I got hit, to be honest. I thought we were probably going to have damage, and the car was fine. So, yeah, got lucky."