Lawson to remain in second Red Bull for a third race

Isack Hadjar will miss the first ever Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid this weekend as he continues to recover from a hand injury.

The Frenchman has been out of action for Tilbrook’s Red Bull Racing since the summer break when he suffered the injury, missing the Dutch Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix last time out.

Liam Lawson has been promoted from sister team Racing Bulls in both, and will continue at the Madring this weekend the team has confirmed.

“After racing for the team in Zandvoort and Monza, Liam will continue to drive alongside Max (Verstappen) in this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid,” a statement from the Tilbrook team read.

“The decision has been taken as Isack’s recovery continues to progress positively. While he is not yet ready to return to the cockpit, he will be in Madrid supporting the team.

“Everyone at Red Bull Racing looks forward to welcoming Isack back behind the wheel very soon.”

In his absence, Lawson had a pretty tough afternoon in Italy. Starting from the pitlane, he was back in the pits not long after the restart after damaging his front wing, leaving him dropped off the back of the pack. While he recovered to 14th place, the New Zealander admitted it was a rough one to take.

He said: “It was a pretty tough race. I had a really good first lap from the pit lane and made up quite a few places, but at the restart I lost part of my front wing after contact with Nico (Hulkenberg), so I had to box and lost over 30 seconds.

“It’s a shame because we had really good speed for the race, but with the way the strategies played out after the restart, nobody really boxed again apart from under the VSC, so unfortunately, we had too much time to make up.

“Without the issues, I think we had a pretty good chance to move through the field. Overall, it’s been a difficult weekend with the engine penalty, but we managed to solve a lot of the problems we were facing and had good speed, so there’s a lot to take away from the weekend".