Liam Lawson scored points for Racing Bulls again at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

Lawson started and finished ninth, the best result he could have hoped to achieve without any retirements from the top four teams.

The target for Racing Bulls is to outscore Alpine amid the battle for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, and that’s exactly what they managed to do, thanks to Lawson, as Pierre Gasly finished 10th.

Alan Permane ‘amazed’ by Liam Lawson’s US Grand Prix performance

In recognition of Lawson’s performance, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane took to the airwaves from the pit wall. Permane made a playful reference to the concert his driver put on before this weekend.

“You want to do a gig on Thursday in Mexico [the next race] as well?” Permane quipped.

“Yeah, I felt so relaxed all weekend, honestly,” Lawson laughed.

“Well done, amazing,” Permane then said. “Perfect, perfect weekend.”

“Thank you,” replied Lawson.

Lawson has now scored points in three straight Grands Prix, in addition to an excellent P5 in the Singapore Sprint. Impressively, he has only finished a race outside the top 10 all season.

The 24-year-old (P9) remains the highest-ranking driver in the championship without a guaranteed seat for 2027. Permane said at the previous race in Singapore that Formula 2 title contender Nikola Tsolov is in contention for next year.

The consenus is that Lawson will keep his seat and, on results alone, it’s increasingly difficult to justify a change to the line-up.

They are 33 points ahead of Alpine with just five races remaining, and the Kiwi is responsible for almost 63% of their tally.

Understandably, Racing Bulls are keen to keep Lawson, but the decision will ultimately be made by the Red Bull hierarchy, potentially sports boss Oliver Mintzlaff.