The Latest Breaking News from Lawson

Ricciardo, paid by McLaren to leave the team for this season, was called to replace sacked AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries from Hungary. But two rounds later, the Australian crashed in practice at Zandvoort, sustaining a broken metacarpal in his left hand and flew to Spain for immediate surgery.

Tsunoda will be handed a fourth season at the Faenza outfit, while the currently injured Ricciardo will get a full season with the team after his mid-season comeback this summer.

Poleman Nojiri and Lawson, who started third, went side-by-side through the Turn 1 and 2 right-handers on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, with Lawson attempting to go around the outside of his Team Mugen colleague.

Red Bull junior Lawson spun on the opening lap after running wide at the exit of Turn 2 while battling with Nojiri for the lead, with Tadasuke Makino and Yuhi Sekiguchi both going airborne in the ensuing mayhem.

With front-row starter Kakunoshin Ota stalling on the grid, Lawson got on the aggressive and tried to pass polesitter Tomoki Nojiri for the lead of the race.

After topping practice on Saturday morning, Nojiri went second-fastest in his group in the first segment before setting the fastest time of 1m31.955s in the Q2 pole shootout.

With three rounds left this season, TOM’S driver Miyata sits a single point clear of Mugen rival Lawson in the drivers’ standings.

In fact, Formula 1 hopeful Lawson is not even the only Kiwi called Liam plying his trade on the Japanese scene in 2023. Formula Regional Japanese Championship racer Liam Sceats has seen to that.

Officials were also stumped on what counts as infill and greenfield development.