Liam Lawson's Impressive Friday at Monza for Red Bull

Liam Lawson is starting to look less like a stand‑in and more like a driver who belongs.

On his first day back in a Red Bull at Monza, the Kiwi turned a low‑key, data-heavy Friday into something far more encouraging, labelling it “productive” after mixing it with the front-runners in opening practice and then shadowing Max Verstappen’s pace in the afternoon.

He clocked the fourth-fastest time in FP1 with a 1m 23.433s lap, a statement effort to open his Italian Grand Prix weekend. The afternoon told a different story on the timing sheets – 12th in FP2 with a 1m 23.660s – but the numbers barely scratch the surface of what Red Bull asked him to do.

“It was okay. It's been, I would say a productive day,” Lawson said, and the choice of word fit. FP2 was never about headline laps.

Red Bull pushed him into long-run work, sacrificing a late soft-tyre blast for a more methodical race simulation. A short run at the start to check the balance, then two extended stints on the soft and the hard compounds. Mileage over glory.

Even so, Lawson ended the session only 0.283s adrift of Verstappen, who finished ninth. For a driver in just his second consecutive weekend in the car, that margin is another quiet tick in the box.

This latest run with Red Bull comes after an impressive cameo at Zandvoort, where Lawson brought the car home in seventh. That performance, combined with Isack Hadjar’s wrist injury, opened the door for him to stay in the seat for Monza. Yuki Tsunoda, who filled Lawson’s spot at Racing Bulls last weekend, continues in that role as Hadjar remains sidelined.

If Zandvoort exposed anything, it was the difference between Lawson’s one-lap sharpness and the grind of race management.

“I think we struggled more — I struggled more — at Zandvoort in the race than quali,” he admitted. Monza, then, becomes the next classroom. Friday was “good learning”, as he put it, a chance to deepen his feel for the Red Bull under full tanks and tyre degradation.

The circuit itself demands a different kind of craft. Monza is all about speed, braking nerve and, crucially, the tow. Slipstreaming can transform a lap here, and Lawson knows it.

The importance of running in another car’s wake showed up clearly in the practice data, and it will shape how Red Bull choreograph their qualifying runs.

“For sure, it's something we'll discuss, and we'll come up with a plan,” Lawson said. At Monza, that plan can be worth rows on the grid.

At the sharp end of the field, Ferrari and Mercedes traded early blows. Charles Leclerc lit up FP1 for Ferrari with a 1m 23.00s, stirring the tifosi into life, while George Russell answered in FP2, topping the charts for Mercedes with a 1m 22.559s.

Lawson’s story sits a little further back, away from the roar of the grandstands and the fight for pole, but it is gathering pace. A strong Friday, a car he’s still learning, and a qualifying session looming in the small hours of Sunday morning (2am NZT) before the race in the early hours of Monday (1am NZT).

Two weekends. One of the sport’s biggest teams. A legendary circuit.

How much more can he squeeze out of this unexpected audition?