There were contrasting emotions in the Red Bull Racing garage after Saturday’s qualifying session for the Dutch Grand Prix.

On one side was a disappointed Max Verstappen, who accepted that he will begin his final home race at Zandvoort from a modest P7 after what ranked as one of his most underwhelming qualifying performances of the season.

That mood stood in sharp contrast to temporary teammate Liam Lawson. Just one place behind and only 0.115s away from the four-time World Champion, the Racing Bulls regular delivered everything that was expected of him and then some, despite being drafted into the unfamiliar RB22 on a busy sprint weekend.

After being dropped by Red Bull and sent back to Racing Bulls after only two races of the 2025 season, this outing marked an initial move towards redemption for Lawson – and a second step could follow if he delivers a strong performance in Sunday’s race.

Verstappen had already been unhappy after taking P6 in Friday’s sprint qualifying, pointing to an overall lack of grip and the poor balance that has troubled the car for much of the season.

He then came home in the same position in the sprint race, and afterwards indicated that, with the car no longer under parc ferme restrictions, he would make setup changes ahead of main qualifying in an attempt to find a better balance.

Ultimately, those changes failed to improve the situation, and he actually dropped one grid position compared to Friday’s session.

“It’s just the same,” he said when asked by Road & Track whether the changes had worked. “Same balance issues that we had all weekend. So with the big changes that we made, it unfortunately didn’t really do anything to the car.” He added: “It’s not frustrating. I mean, we’ve been in that basically the whole year. It’s not weird, or it’s suddenly that that popped up.”

At some circuits the car has looked more competitive than at others, and unfortunately for Verstappen’s huge fan following, Zandvoort has fallen at the wrong end of that range.

“It depends, of course, on the tarmac sometimes, but also on the layout of a track,” he said. “This one, for sure, is not our best layout, probably for that. We just need to work on it. You can guess on what track it might be a little bit better on. But yeah, we need to try and just dial it out.”

When asked whether he still believed improvements could be made during this season, he admitted that some specifications are already fixed. “I hope so, but I think also some changes, they need to be made for next year,” he said.

Speaking about the room for updates this season, he added: “Of course, naturally with the budget cap in place you are more limited, like everyone. So yeah, we’ll see what’s still coming.”

Last year, Red Bull demonstrated a striking rate of development, taking the car from also-ran to title contender within a few months. That turnaround has not been repeated this year, but Verstappen said the comparison does not really hold up.

“I think it’s a bit different,” he insisted. “Last year we came from dominating to suddenly dropping back, and then we came back to a very good level. This is a completely different formula, and we’ve never nailed it yet. So it’s different, completely different circumstances.”

The car may not have been ideal, but for Lawson the RB22 still represented a step up from his regular VCARB 03 chassis, even though that machine has been a strong midfield contender.

The sprint format gave him very little time to settle in, and there was a lot to absorb. “Honestly, the best way I can describe it is outside of the power unit, every single thing feels different,” he said. “The way the steering feels versus how the car moves, balance through corner, obviously the high-speed grip. Everything’s different about it.” P11 in sprint qualifying and P11 again in the sprint race was a decent, if not spectacular, beginning, but he deserves credit for lifting his game in main qualifying. “It’s been very challenging, obviously to try and build up in a short space of time,” he said after securing P8. “But obviously the target was to keep improving through the weekend, and by quali I think that was a good job from everybody to help me get comfortable in the car, or as comfortable as possible. I feel like I extracted pretty much everything I had out of the car.”

Lawson has never lacked self-confidence, but even by his standards it was a major challenge to step into the pressure-filled seat alongside Verstappen at such short notice.

“As drivers, we all have plenty of self-belief, obviously,” he said. “So coming into a weekend without expecting too much, I tried to be as prepared as possible, and knowing the speed of the car this year, I just was targeting, trying to get as close to Max as possible, and try and learn from what he was doing. So it started honestly maybe a little bit closer than we expected, but just executing each time and making sure we nail each lap.”

Last year, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko gave Lawson only the Melbourne and Shanghai weekends to prove himself before abruptly removing him from Red Bull Racing. With a full season at Racing Bulls now behind him, he is a much more complete driver.

“The main thing, honestly, last year was there were two tracks I’d never been to,” he noted. “So on top of that, trying to learn a car that was already very hard to drive. I think this car potentially is not so difficult to drive, or difficult to be on the limit. So it’s more putting everything else together, tire prep, just getting the balance right in the car and getting used to how it actually drives, versus a car last year that was just very tough to put on the limit.”

Interestingly, he said this time he has concentrated more on his own needs and less on copying his teammate: “Honestly, I’ve also learned a lot, just personal things. I went into last year, obviously thought I was going to have more time in the car, so I was more or less just adapting to everything that Max had in the car. And there’s a lot of stuff, just like pedals, steering, everything like that, that was different for me, and that I didn’t have time to get used to. And this weekend, I just said, let’s make it as close to my car as possible, and forget everything that he has, and just try and make it as close to my car, feeling-wise. And I think that helps.”

With Isack Hadjar expected to be fit for Monza, Sunday’s race is Lawson’s one opportunity – now it remains to be seen whether he can make the most of it.