Stewards escalate a practice collision
A practice crash is now costing Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson a place each on the grid in Mexico City. The stewards handed both drivers a one-place penalty after the two collided in the second practice session on Friday, calling their conduct “unacceptable”.
The sequence started at Turn 12, where Verstappen went for a move on the inside. Lawson held his line, the cars ran side by side through Turn 13 and touched at Turn 14. Debris from Verstappen’s car brought out a red flag.
no renewal
Free for 2 weeks.
Why a warning became a penalty
The stewards went beyond a formal warning to a grid penalty because of similar contact between drivers in practice this year and in earlier seasons, and because overtaking in the final sector had been raised at the team managers’ meeting earlier that day. Both drivers admitted their moves were “unnecessary and clumsy”.
Verstappen said Lawson’s move was “maybe not very smart” and argued that a driver fighting for a seat should behave more sensibly. He also claimed Lawson “suddenly started to accelerate” when he saw him coming. Lawson was blunter on the radio, saying Verstappen “literally drove into me”, and he did not speak to reporters afterward. Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane put the blame on both and called the collision “completely unnecessary”.
The bigger picture
Lawson is ninth in the standings and 39 points ahead of teammate Arvid Lindblad, but his 2027 seat is not secure. Racing Bulls has not confirmed its line-up, and Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov, second in Formula 2, is in the mix. Verstappen recently signed a new long-term deal with Red Bull.
The weekend has more at stake. Qualifying is at 9pm UK time on Saturday, the race starts at 8pm on Sunday, and Kimi Antonelli can clinch the drivers’ title in Mexico with the right result.
Discover the rest of our F1 news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply