Liam Lawson aims cheeky swipe at Yuki Tsunoda after holding off Red Bull

Liam Lawson has landed a cheeky swipe at Yuki Tsunoda by saying he expected the Red Bull driver to be faster at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Racing Bulls driver impressively held off Tsunoda’s Red Bull to claim his best F1 result with fifth place in Baku, having secured third place on the grid with a stunning lap in qualifying.

Lawson produced a defensive masterclass to keep a gaggle of cars including Tsunoda behind him in the closing stages despite not having DRS.

“I mean, for sure, [Tsunoda] is on a fresh set of tyres, on a Medium, on a grippier tyre and, honestly, I was preparing for him to end up catching me quicker, and I expected them to be faster,” Lawson said.

“Obviously, looking at Max today, they had a great race, and the car looks good.

“So I think when I saw him come out on a better tyre, I was expecting him to catch me faster. But I think our sector three was extremely strong this weekend, it’s where it needed to be.”

Lawson’s teammate Isack Hadjar finished 10th as Racing Bulls celebrated a double points finish.

The result sees Red Bull's sister team overtake Aston Martin and move up to sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

Yuki Tsunoda claims he held back

Explaining his side of the battle, Tsunoda, who secured his best result since replacing his former teammate Lawson at Red Bull earlier this season, admitted he held back and could have tried harder to attack.

“Especially [with a] McLaren behind, [I was] thinking about the championship, both the team and drivers’ championship for Max,” Tsunoda said.

“There were a lot of opportunities I could probably go inside and attack Liam, but there’s a lot more risk that maybe the McLaren will overtake both of us, or either [of us],” he said.

“So I think as a Red Bull [driver], you don’t want to have that, and I think I did the right decision [by] not challenging him. But at the same time I didn’t have enough pace also to overtake comfortably.”

Both drivers are fighting for their futures, with Tsunoda under-pressure to keep his Red Bull seat for 2026, while Lawson is aiming to be retained by Racing Bulls.

Lawson sits 13th in the drivers’ championship with 30 points, while Tsunoda is 17th with 10 points fewer. 

Baku marked the first time since the 2020 Russian Grand Prix that all four Red Bull-backed drivers finished inside the top 10 in the same race.