Weekend to forget for elite Kiwi drivers
- NZ Sports Wire
- Mar 24
- 2 min read
There was little to celebrate for New Zealand drivers in the latest Formula 1, IndyCar and Nascar races.
Liam Lawson finished 12th at the F1 Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, before Marcus Armstrong and Scott Dixon posted top-10 results in IndyCar and Shane van Gisbergen finished near the back of the field in Nascar.
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Lawson had another tough weekend in Shanghai in just his second grand prix as F1 champion Max Verstappen's full-time teammate at Red Bull.
The 22-year-old was 18th in the first free practice and 20th and last in the sprint shootout, before recovering from starting 19th to finish 14th in the sprint race on Saturday.
Still adjusting to the tricky Red Bull car, Lawson was 20th again in qualifying, but picked up five spot during the grand prix - then three more spots after Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc and Alpine's Pierre Gasly were disqualified - to finish 12th.
Already the pressure is mounting - both internally at Red Bull and externally from F1 pundits and fans - on Lawson, with speculation suggestion a seat swap with Yuki Tsunoda at Lawson's former Racing Bulls team.
"We tried to do something quite aggressive today with the set-up, that's why we started from pit-lane," Lawson told Sky Sports. "We definitely learned something, it just didn't work today."
"Looking at the sprint yesterday, we were a lot more competitive, able to overtake cars. Today was just a lot more difficult. Obviously, there's a bit I've got to work on, as well."
In the California desert, Armstrong finished seventh and Dixon 10th at The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix on Sunday (Monday NZ Time), while it was a disastrous weekend for Scott McLaughlin.
Second-year Chip Ganassi driver Armstrong started seventh, just missing out on the Fast 6 qualifying round, but did not make much impression on the leaders, finishing more than 41 seconds down on the race winner, Alex Palou.
It was a similar situation for Dixon, who started 11th on the grid, dropping to second in the drivers standings.
After a tough qualifying session saw him 25th on the grid, McLaughlin tangled with Devlin DeFrancesco before even getting to the green flag, also suffering a hybrid system overheating, before eventually retiring after 53 laps.
Shane van Gisbergen's oval track struggles continue in Nascar, finishing 32nd at the Miami Nascar 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday (Monday NZT).
The rookie Trackhouse Racing driver has finished 33rd, 23rd, 31st, 34th and 32nd on ovals this season, although his finishes at Daytona and Atlanta were hurt by getting caught up in late crashes.
Van Gisbergen, who finished sixth at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in the only non-oval race so far in 2025, was off the pace in practice and qualifying at Homestead, finishing 35th in both sessions.
