Liam Lawson has revealed he apologised to Max Verstappen following their collision throughout the second free apply session on Friday on the F1 Mexico Metropolis GP.
The previous teammates made contact at Flip 14, leaving each vehicles with harm and forcing the session to be crimson flagged. Each drivers have been hit with a one-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Within the official incident report, the stewards deemed each drivers’ behaviour to be “unacceptable”.
Lawson confirmed he approached Verstappen to easy issues over forward of the classes on Saturday.
“It’s not superb,” mentioned Lawson. “I went to see Max to apologise as a result of what occurred doesn’t have to occur.
“I don’t need to have that occur sooner or later. Clearly, proper now, it’s not the very best time, so yeah, it’s been a tough day, truthfully.
“However I’m completely satisfied to drive the automotive. In the mean time, I identical to driving the automotive.”
The Racing Bulls driver completed qualifying in eighth, however was finally disqualified on account of a technical breach. He’ll begin Sunday’s race from the again of the grid.
Talking shortly after the collision, Verstappen mentioned the penalty wouldn’t have an effect on his weekend, however known as out the untimeliness of Lawson’s actions.
“While you’re combating on your seat, it’s not very good behaviour,” the Dutchman mentioned.
Lawson is one in every of a trio of drivers combating for a seat at Racing Bulls subsequent season, alongside his present teammate Arvid Lindland, and Nikola Tsolov, who presently sits second within the System 2 standings and took over Lawson’s automotive in FP1 on Friday.
F1 world champion Jenson Button backed Lawson’s future at Racing Bulls, mentioning the New Zealand driver’s stronger consistency in contrast with the rookie Tsolov.
“It’s such a tough one for the crew to name,” mentioned Button. “They clearly have the junior Tsolov coming by way of in F2, second within the championship, doing an incredible job.
“However he’s additionally had inconsistencies by way of his years. He’s had moments of brilliance, however then he’s had different races the place it’s not fairly been there for him.
“Perhaps the crew are enthusiastic about getting younger new expertise within the crew, however I feel Liam’s job this 12 months has been actually good. He’s been very constant.
“They know what they’re getting with Liam, whereas with Tsolov, they don’t. So possibly they’re enthusiastic about that. I don’t know.
“But when they’re there to attain factors in the meanwhile, I’d say Liam’s your man.”
READ MORE: Arvid Lindblad laments ‘fairly unhealthy’ F1 qualifying at Mexican GP
