Verstappen and Lawson get grid drops for 'clumsy' Mexico clash
Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson have each been given one-place grid penalties for their "clumsy" clash during second Formula 1 practice at the Mexican Grand Prix.
That incident occurred early in FP2 when Verstappen, on a prep lap, tried to lunge past Lawson - on a cooldown lap before another push - into the 90-degree Turn 12 right-hander.
Lawson stayed on the outside of Verstappen through that corner, which became the inside line for the Turn 13 switchback in the stadium section, before Verstappen cut across the track at Turn 14 and got ahead of the Racing Bulls driver, though only via contact that shattered the Red Bull's left-side bargeboard, with the resulting debris prompting a red flag.
Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 it was "not very smart behaviour" from Lawson, who (alongside team-mate Arvid Lindblad) has not yet been announced at Racing Bulls for 2027 and whom Verstappen characterised as "fighting for your seat".
Verstappen said of the incident: "At the end of the day, it's not going to change my weekend."
But the clash did have consequences.
In identical statements issued to both cars, the stewards said they considered both drivers' actions "unacceptable", in particular in respect of a "warning" given at the team managers' meeting earlier on Friday.
They said both Lawson and Verstappen had called the move "clumsy" and unnecessary - a word also used by Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane when describing the contact.
It was that message given at the team managers' meeting that ultimately condemned Verstappen and Lawson to penalties.
"Noting that there had been similar incidents this year of actions between drivers in free practice, the stewards have decided to escalate the penalty from that of a formal warning to a grid position penalty particularly in view of the warning that had been provided at the team managers' meeting and consistent with other incidents involving contact between the cars in free practice in previous years," the stewards' decision read.
Both drivers were also given one penalty point for the transgression.
