The New Zealander ended opening practice 10th before improving to seventh in FP2, completing an encouraging first day for Racing Bulls as both its drivers featured inside the top 10 across the two sessions.
Lawson completed 28 laps during FP1 and recorded a best time of 1m20.866s, finishing just over a tenth behind teammate Arvid Lindblad in ninth.
Racing Bulls initially struggled to find a comfortable balance around the Hungaroring, prompting the team to make more significant changes than usual between the two sessions.
Those adjustments produced an improvement during FP2, with Lawson lowering his best time to 1m20.041s and moving ahead of Lindblad, who finished 10th.
Lawson’s final soft-tyre attempt helped him climb to seventh, placing him behind Isack Hadjar and ahead of Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Lindblad.
The 24-year-old finished 1.312s behind Lewis Hamilton’s session-leading Ferrari, but was encouraged by the performance available from the VCARB 03 ahead of qualifying.
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“I’m feeling good having wrapped up Friday here in Budapest. The car seems pretty quick, however it’s a very challenging track, so can be difficult to put a lap together,” Lawson said.
“We’ll be working on making the necessary changes overnight in order to give ourselves the best possible chance to reach Q3 in Qualifying.
“I really enjoy racing at the Hungaroring, so I’m excited to get back out there tomorrow.”
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Lawson’s improvement came after Racing Bulls focused on providing greater stability during corner entry and improving traction through the final sector.
Team principal Alan Permane said the car had been difficult during the opening session, but believed the changes made before FP2 had moved the team into a more competitive position.
“It’s not been as straight forward for us today compared to the last couple of races; the car was quite tricky in FP1 and we made more changes than we normally would in-between sessions, but we got on top of things for FP2,” Permane said.
“As ever here, things close up, with the shorter lap. There’s a lot of medium speed, which we’re focusing on and making sure we’ve got a stable car on entries with good traction in the last sector, which is especially important.
“Liam made a change for the final lap on softs today and that worked well, helping the rear end.
“It’s difficult to know exactly where we sit performance-wise but it looks like we are in decent shape and will refine things further in FP3.”
Lindblad also completed a consistent Friday after finishing ninth and 10th across the two sessions, leaving both Racing Bulls drivers confident of challenging for the final part of qualifying.
The British driver acknowledged there remained areas for him to improve, but shared Lawson’s belief that Q3 was achievable.
“I think today was pretty decent overall. There are still a few things to work on, but we’re not in a bad place,” Lindblad said.
“On my side, there are a couple of areas I need to improve ahead of Qualifying, but we’ve got a clear direction for tomorrow.
“We expected Audi to be a step ahead this weekend as this circuit suits their car well, so we knew it would be more challenging than the last few races.
“That said, we’ve been competitive here before, and if we execute everything well in qualifying, I think Q3 is definitely within reach.”
Racing Bulls will complete its final preparations during FP3 on Saturday at 8.30am AEST (12.30pm local time) before qualifying begins at the Hungaroring at 12am AEST (4pm local time).
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