Lawson crossed the line eighth at Spa-Francorchamps, keeping his nose clean with strategy and tyre management key to his success.
“I really enjoyed today,” Lawson said post-race.
“Often in those conditions you just want to survive, so I’m very happy for the team and how everything came together.
“It’s always tricky when you cross over to a dry tyre when it’s damp, but the car was fast and in clean air we had great pace.
“A lot of work goes into little details each weekend when the championship is this tight, so now we need to keep the momentum rolling forward and make sure we enter the summer break on a high.”
It’s a timely return to form for the Kiwi, who went scoreless through the opening seven races of the season.
Since then, Lawson has scored in three of the last six grands prix, with all three points finishes coming from top 10 grid starts.
New Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane, overseeing his first weekend in charge following Laurent Mekies’ promotion to the senior Red Bull team, praised Lawson’s clean and measured drive.
“Liam had a near-perfect race,” he said. “He managed his tyres exceptionally well, both on the intermediates and on the dry tyre.
“He was strong and able to comfortably pull away from [Gabriel] Bortoleto behind and was very happy with the car overall.”
While Lawson continues to build momentum, teammate Isack Hadjar finds himself heading in the opposite direction.
The French rookie finished 20th and last after suffering a straight-line speed issue from early in the race, a problem the team said was evident from as early as Lap 8.
“Unfortunately, we had an issue with the car for almost the whole race and that made me lose quite a lot of lap time,” Hadjar said.
“It was very frustrating, as I felt like the car underneath me was working really well.
“It’s a shame for the team, as everyone has done an amazing job, and I think it could have been a double-points finish today after Liam’s result.”
Hadjar has now gone four races without scoring, having banked points in four of his first nine starts.
Permane acknowledged the team’s disappointment over the missed opportunity.
“First of all, we have to apologise to Isack,” he said.
“He had a problem with his car that we could see from around Lap 8, causing him a loss of straight-line speed and costing him a lot of time over the course of the race.
It’s a shame because he had a great car all weekend and great pace so if it wasn’t for that, I’m sure it would have been a very different result.”
Lawson’s result moves him up to 14th in the drivers’ championship on 16 points, while Racing Bulls remain in a tight battle for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, currently sitting seventh on 41 points, two behind Sauber and five ahead of Aston Martin.
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