Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson apologised for the incident with Max Verstappen during FP2 at the F1 2026 Mexico City GP and reacted to the Red Bull driver’s comments.
Both Verstappen and Lawson had missed out on FP1 due to their seats being taken by rookie drivers Ayumu Iwasa and Nikola Tsolov. Later on Friday, they had contact during FP2 after Verstappen tried to overtake car number 30 ahead into Turn 12. According to the stewards, the pair traded a series of moves from the entry to Turn 12 through to the apex of Turn 14, where the two F1 cars made contact.
Lawson had attempted to get back ahead of the Dutchman into the following turn. But Verstappen bounced over the kerb, rejoining the New Zealander. By the end, the collision scattered debris across the track, forcing a red flag, and broke off part of the bodywork on Verstappen’s car.
After FP1, the stewards determined both cars were at fault and gave each driver a drop penalty of one position. The statement claimed, “the driver of both cars behaved in a manner that was considered unacceptable by the Stewards”. And that “both drivers admitted the moves were unnecessary and ‘clumsy’”.
“I went to see Max this morning to apologise”: Lawson
When asked if the situation had been sorted out internally, Liam Lawson explained: “Yeah, obviously it’s not ideal. And it’s something that should never happen in practice. So I went to see Max this morning to apologise, because obviously it was never my intention to make contact.
“And obviously for both of us it’s not good,” added the New Zealander.“So yeah, I’ll learn from it going forward. And obviously tomorrow is a long race, hopefully we can do our best.
Lawson reacts to Verstappen’s comments on the incident
Right after getting out of the car from FP2 at the F1 Mexico City GP, Verstappen made some surprising comments on Lawson’s driving. “Maybe not very smart behaviour, what he was trying to do there. At the end of the day, it’s not going to change my weekend. But if it were him, I would act a little bit smarter,” Verstappen had said. “Also, when you’re fighting for your seat, it’s not very smart behaviour,” said the Dutchman, referring to the fact that Racing Bulls have yet to confirm their driver line-up for 2027.
When asked whether he had been surprised by Verstappen’s comments, Lawson answered: “I think so.
“I think when you come in from a session… Obviously I didn’t do it; I didn’t talk, I didn’t do media yesterday. So yeah, when you come in from a session, and there’s adrenaline,” explained the Racing Bulls driver.
“Ultimately only Max knows how he feels. So yeah, obviously like I said, it was never my intention to have contact, so apologies for that.”
