Liam Lawson identifies 'massive' boost despite major F1 frustration

Liam Lawson has hailed Racing Bulls' first F1 podium as "massive" despite his own frustration from the Dutch Grand Prix. Lawson finished 12th after contact with Carlos Sainz derailed his afternoon, having been set for a strong points finish, with team-mate Isack Hadjar running fourth.  After Lando Norris's late retirement, Hadjar was promoted to third for the first podium for Racing Bulls since that name joined F1 in 2024.  The last podium for the team, in its AlphaTauri guise, came via Pierre Gasly's third place at the 2021 Azerbaijan GP, with the Racing Bulls machine one of the fastest on the grid in recent races. Both Lawson and Hadjar have become regular Q3 contenders, with the team converting this into a points finish in seven of the last nine races to move to 60 points and seventh place in the standings. It is just two points behind Aston Martin and 20 behind Williams, although the FW47 of Sainz and Alex Albon is not as strong as at the start of the campaign.  Reflecting on the podium, Lawson was effusive about the current performance of the team.  "It's massive, obviously we're pushing everybody here, and something like this could give that little bit of motivation to everybody to keep working hard," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365 , of Hadjar's podium.  "From our side, it shows the performance of the car recently; we've been in Q3 both quite consistently recently, and our race pace is good. "So for Isack to start in front of seven guys and stay in front shows that. "It is cool for Isack, he's done a good job and been very strong recently, so it was great to show the performance, and it's very, very cool for him."