Formula 1: Liam Lawson faster than Max Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda as second Japanese Grand Prix practice dogged by red flags

In a second Japanese Grand Prix practice session that was dogged by no fewer than four red flags, Liam Lawson can at the very least take pride in clocking a faster lap time than his senior Red Bull teammates at Suzuka.

As the four incidents - one crash, one spin and two fires - caused close to 40 minutes of delay in the weekend’s second practice, Lawson’s best lap time of 1m 28.559s was good enough for fifth overall of the 20 drivers. The Kiwi’s time was 0.445s slower than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who led the second session with a best time of 1m 28.114s.

However, fresh from being demoted from Red Bull’s senior team into its junior Racing Bulls ranks, Lawson’s best time was faster than both world champion Max Verstappen, and teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

The performances of both drivers come with huge mitigation, as the four red flags and the disruptions they caused meant neither Tsunoda nor Verstappen were able to put in a simulated qualifying lap, on the fastest tyre. Tsunoda wasn’t even able to complete a lap on the soft tyres.

Tsunoda, who was swapped into Red Bull to replace Lawson could only manage a best time of 1m 30.625s for 18th, and was more than two seconds slower than the Kiwi. Verstappen’s best time of 1m 28.670s was 0.111s slower than Lawson as he finished eighth.

Both Racing Bulls cars were faster than their Red Bull senior stablemates, as rookie Isack Hadjar crossed the line with a best time of 1m 28.518s, 0.041s in front of Lawson.

After getting through 27 laps in the day’s first free practice session, Lawson added another 13 in the second, as he comes to grips with Racing Bulls’ VCARB02 car.

Back at Racing Bulls, and behind the wheel of its new VCARB02 for the first time on track, the Kiwi looked far more at home than he had done in the season’s two opening grands prix, driving the troublesome RB21 in Melbourne and Shanghai.

“It was a good day,” said Lawson. “[It was] nice to be driving, nice to be driving at Suzuka again. It’s a really cool track.”

“All in all, a good day. Obviously tomorrow is the important one.

”Everybody’s been very, very positive. Even from last week, Laurent [Mekies] was straight on the phone, and very, very positive, and saying all the things I needed to hear.

”I’ve spent a lot of time with this team, they’re a great bunch of people. It is nice to feel that welcome back again.”Hopefully we can have some great races together.”

With teams trialling numerous combinations and setups across practice, Friday saw Lawson not only log valuable time behind the wheel of his new car, but also get through stunts of all three tyre compounds.

The second session was red-flagged after less than 10 minutes, after Alpine’s Jack Doohan put his car in the wall, and was forced out altogether. The Australian came off at turn one, and caused a delay of more than 20 minutes. Doohan was able to walk away from the accident, and was assessed by medical staff after hitting the wall at more than 300km/h.

However, just minutes after the resumption, Fernando Alonso beached his Aston Martin - and triggered another red flag, albeit with a much shorter stoppage.

Liam Lawson in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull

But after changing for the soft tyres, Lawson put in a first timed lap of 1m 28.559s, only for a third red flag after a patch of grass at the exit of turn 11 caught fire when a car drove over it.

Approaching the point of hilarity, the session was red flagged one final time, as the grass caught fire once again, and left no time for the two Red Bull cars to improve on their previous times.

Now in his second stint with Racing Bulls, team principal Laurent Mekies hailed the Kiwi’s response to being demoted last week.

“Liam is in good spirits,” said Mekies. “I’m not going to tell you he was happy about what happened, because he wasn’t.

“But he’s been able to digest it quite quickly. He was in Faenza the day after the announcement to do his seat fit, and then it was a tight schedule with the simulator to get him ready to hit the track here.

“He’s in good spirits, he knows he has an important role to play in the team in our fight in the midfield.

“I’m sure he also has a point to prove, we know the talent is there. It’s about us finding a way to get him comfortable in the car, to find a way to be able to push in the car.

“If we do that, the results will come.”

Earlier, Lawson enjoyed a solid if not unspectacular start to the weekend, clocking the 13th fastest time in the weekend’s opening practice session.

Lawson’s best effort of 1m 29.539s was 0.987s off the fastest time of the first session, set by McLaren’s Lando Norris. Accepting that teams trial different things during practice, including tyres, fuel loads and aerodynamic configurations, Lawson looked untroubled in his 27 laps.

For reference, the Kiwi’s best effort was 0.172s quicker than Piastri, who was 1.159s off the pace after winning the Chinese Grand Prix last month.

Only Mercedes’ George Russell, who set the second fastest time of the session with 1m 28.712s, recorded more laps than Lawson with 28.

At the same time, Verstappen and Tsunoda, as well as Norris and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli all had scares, and all found themselves in trouble at various points in the day’s first session.

In his first taste of the RB21, Tsunoda lost control of his car at turn 17, while Verstappen left the track altogether at turn nine, and complained of his car flexing in the slow speed corners.

However, Lawson was still the slowest of the four Red Bull-affiliated cars in practice one. As the other half of the equation in Lawson’s demotion, Tsunoda finished with the sixth-fastest lap time, 0.364s faster than the Kiwi, with a best time of 1m 29.172s.

Verstappen was a fraction quicker than Tsunoda, getting around for a best time of 1m 29.065s to place fifth, while Hadjar was eighth, 0.311s faster than his teammate.

While his fastest time was set on the soft tyre, Lawson did look impressive on the slower, hard compound, on which he completed 13 of his 27 laps.

The 20 drivers return to Suzuka tomorrow afternoon (NZ time) for the third and final practice, before qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016, and previously worked for both Newshub and 1News.