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The Kiwi qualified eighth at Zandvoort on his return to the senior squad in place of the injured Isack Hadjar, reaching Q3 for the first time as a Red Bull driver and finishing just over a tenth behind Max Verstappen. It marked an encouraging response after Lawson’s brief two-race stint with Red Bull at the start of 2025 ended with him being moved back to Racing Bulls. Reflecting on that experience after qualifying, Lawson said he had never lost faith in his ability to perform given the right circumstances and more time in the car. “Maybe for everybody else to see. Obviously, as drivers, we have plenty of self-belief. All of us. Maybe too much sometimes,” Lawson told Sky Sports F1. “But you know, obviously with everything that happened last year, it’s something that was a very tough thing to go through. “But for me personally, I knew that with the right circumstances, with more time, I know what I can do with a race car, and it was nice to at least put that to paper today.” Lawson’s opportunity came at short notice after Hadjar was ruled out of the Dutch Grand Prix with a wrist injury, leaving him to adapt to a Red Bull he admitted was considerably different from the Racing Bulls machinery he has driven throughout 2026. “It’s been a challenging weekend trying to get used to this car. It’s very different to drive,” he admitted. “Not what I expected obviously ending the break, but I think I’m pretty happy with today.” Lawson highlighted the steering and his position inside the cockpit as two of the biggest adjustments he has faced during the weekend. “Other than the power unit, it’s just the way the car turns into corners,” he explained. “The steering is the most different. We have very different steering feels just in terms of how much we use, how much we lock the car. “And for me, that’s been the biggest thing to get my head around this weekend.” He also revealed the different seating position had made driving the car physically more demanding than he had experienced at Racing Bulls. “I think it’s just ergonomically being in a different position and a different seat,” Lawson said. View this post on Instagram “Like I’ve struggled so much more with just physically being in the car.” His final Q3 lap was further complicated by the threat of rain, with Red Bull abandoning the build laps Lawson had been using throughout qualifying and sending him directly into a push lap. “Just for me, I struggled a little bit in the exit to Turn 1 with traction, but overall this lap in general was different because we’d been doing build laps the whole of quali,” he said. “And because of the rain, basically we converted to just out push. And I hadn’t done it before, so I had no idea going into Turn 1 what I was going to get.” Lawson believed an even stronger result had been possible before losing time at Turn 10 during his final effort. “I just lost the front. It’s a shame, because up until this point, it was improving quite a lot. I think we were on for an even better lap, and then I got to turn 10.” His eighth place put him directly behind Verstappen, who qualified seventh after continuing to struggle with the balance of his Red Bull despite making substantial changes following the sprint. “Yeah, we changed quite a bit, and it actually didn’t make a difference. So the balance was pretty much the same as what I had all weekend,” Verstappen said. “So it didn’t really allow me to push, or feel comfortable with the car. So that’s then the position that you’re in.” Lawson’s qualifying performance also represented a significant improvement on his sprint result earlier in the day, when he finished 11th after spending much of the race battling regular Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad. The pair remained closely matched through the middle stages, but Lawson was unable to find a way past around a circuit where overtaking proved difficult throughout the 24-lap sprint. “Yeah definitely good learnings. I mean it’s just so hard to overtake here. Had an okay start and a decent first lap. But it felt like everyone just stayed where we were,” Lawson said after the sprint race. “It’s frustrating when you can’t overtake. We also struggled on tyres. I definitely learnt a lot about that for tomorrow.”