Lawson survives garage scare, repairs VCARB03, finishes fifth

Liam Lawson's Monaco weekend survived a dramatic pre-race technical scare after his Racing Bulls car was found in pieces in the garage, leaving his participation in doubt. About an hour before the local 14:00 start, the team repaired an unspecified fault on the VCARB03 and reassembled the car in time for Lawson to leave the pits for his installation lap. Lawson told Sky Sports he "didn't think I was going to race," and Sky commentator Martin Brundle reported Lawson had feared a pit-lane start at best. Lawson climbed into the car as the pit lane opened, radioed his appreciation to the crew and said he would try to make the result worth it.

Lawson had earlier produced an impressive qualifying, advancing into Q3 and taking 10th on the grid, a result he said left him "pleasantly surprised." The 10th-place start was his best grid position since the Australian Grand Prix and marked his second consecutive year finishing inside the top 10 at Monaco. Lawson and Racing Bulls attributed the recovery in pace to setup changes made after a difficult Friday, which revealed the car's true speed. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli took pole, beating Max Verstappen by 0.043 seconds.

From 10th on the grid, Lawson moved up to ninth on the opening lap after Verstappen stalled, and Verstappen later retired. Lawson advanced through the field amid incidents, penalties and retirements to finish fifth, equaling the best result of his Formula 1 career and matching his previous fifth at last season's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad finished sixth, giving Racing Bulls a one-two finish inside the top six. The quick remediation of Lawson's car was framed against a wider run of early-season did-not-start problems under the new regulations, with other teams and drivers having faced DNS issues this year.