Lawson crossed the line ninth in Sunday’s race in Interlagos to score two valuable points for RB.

He spent the latter laps battling with Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, seeing both off to retain his equal best result of the season.

That followed a career-best qualifying position after he started fifth.

It was a result achieved despite treacherous conditions in both qualifying and the race – the former interrupted by five red flags, and the latter halted once.

That came for Franco Colapinto, who crashed under the Safety Car after it had been deployed for worsening conditions.

Lawson had pitted for new intermediate tyres under the Safety Car on Lap 30, a strategic error it would subsequently prove.

“It’s obviously what could have been,” the New Zealander reflected.

“We lost a lot of time in the red flag, that was just really unlucky timing.

“Alpine made the right call there by staying out.

“Honestly, I don’t think we would have made another lap on the inters, it was so wet, so fair play to the guys who did stay out.

“Something I’ll learn from,” he added.

“I think initially I probably jumped the gun a little bit and thought it was too wet.

“But I’ll learn from that going forward.”

Lawson’s race wasn’t helped by Oscar Piastri, who made contact with the RB on Lap 26 as they battled for seventh.

Entering the first turn, Piastri looked for a move up the inside where he slid into his Antipodean rival, the McLaren’s right-front making contact with Lawson’s left-rear.

It pitched him into a spin and while the RB driver was able to rejoin, he fell to ninth, with Piastri given a 10-second penalty for the clash.

While the most obvious moment of his race, Lawson admitted it was far from the only one.

“I nearly crashed the car probably 10 times,” he confessed.

“It was very sketchy.

“The most important thing was staying on the track and, fortunately, we were able to do that.”

A host didn’t; Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Colapinto, and Carlos Sainz all had race-ending excursions.

Others had less serious offs, Perez spinning on the opening lap to drop to the rear of the field, while Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso also spent time off the track.

Lawson’s RB team-mate also drove a good race to finish seventh, inheriting a spot from Piastri after the chequered flag courtesy of the Australian’s post-race time penalty.

It made for a double points-paying result for RB, worth a combined eight points in the constructors’ championship.

Trailing Haas for sixth by 10 points heading into the race, it would typically have marked a strong return for the Faenza squad.

However, with Alpine snagging an unlikely double-podium result, and with it 35 points, the Enstone operation has leapt from ninth to sixth, relegating RB to eighth in the constructors’ championship.

“Obviously they made the most of this,” Lawson observed.

“It’s very close, five points, so it’s totally doable for us.

“We’ll focus on trying to score some good points in the next one, the last triple-header.”

Just three events now remain in 2024, in Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi – the middle leg a Sprint event.

In the drivers’ championship, Lawson now has four points to his name from three starts it was has been a positive return to the F1 grid for the 22-year-old.