Liam Lawson has revealed he apologised to Max Verstappen following their collision during the second free practice session on Friday at the F1 Mexico City GP.
The former teammates made contact at Turn 14, leaving both cars with damage and forcing the session to be red flagged. Both drivers were hit with a one-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. In the official incident report, the stewards deemed both drivers’ behaviour to be “unacceptable”.
Lawson confirmed he approached Verstappen to smooth things over ahead of the sessions on Saturday.
“It’s not ideal,” said Lawson. “I went to see Max to apologise because what happened doesn’t need to happen.
“I don’t want to have that happen in the future. Obviously, right now, it’s not the best time, so yeah, it’s been a tricky day, honestly.
“But I’m happy to drive the car. At the moment, I just like driving the car.”
The Racing Bulls driver finished qualifying in eighth, but was ultimately disqualified due to a technical breach. He will start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid.
Jenson Button backs Lawson for 2027 Racing Bulls seat
Speaking shortly after the collision, Verstappen said the penalty would not affect his weekend, but called out the untimeliness of Lawson’s actions.
“When you’re fighting for your seat, it’s not very smart behaviour,” the Dutchman said.
Lawson is one of a trio of drivers fighting for a seat at Racing Bulls next season, alongside his current teammate Arvid Lindland, and Nikola Tsolov, who currently sits second in the Formula 2 standings and took over Lawson’s car in FP1 on Friday.
F1 world champion Jenson Button backed Lawson’s future at Racing Bulls, pointing out the New Zealand driver’s stronger consistency compared with the rookie Tsolov.
“It’s such a difficult one for the team to call,” said Button. “They obviously have the junior Tsolov coming through in F2, second in the championship, doing an amazing job.
“But he’s also had inconsistencies through his years. He’s had moments of brilliance, but then he’s had other races where it’s not quite been there for him.
“Maybe the team are excited about getting young new talent in the team, but I think Liam’s job this year has been really good. He’s been very consistent.
“They know what they’re getting with Liam, whereas with Tsolov, they don’t. So maybe they’re excited about that. I don’t know.
“But if they’re there to score points at the moment, I would say Liam’s your guy.”
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