Liam Lawson has apologized for raising his middle finger at Sergio Perez when overtaking the Red Bull driver during the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Perez had tried to overtake Lawson early in the race into Turn 4 and the pair had light contact as Lawson tried to stay on track at the inside of Turn 5, with the New Zealander emerging ahead two corners later. The stewards deemed it a racing incident but resulting damage left Perez off the pace, and after trying to defend from Lawson later in the race the RB driver gestured as he made his way past.
“I think the incident with Checo, I left the space into Turn 4, he was coming in very, very late,” Lawson said. “Honestly, I tried to give him space, he drove me off the track and then he didn’t give me space into Turn 5. It’s unfortunate, it wasn’t my intention, but I don’t know where to go.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“(The gesture) is obviously one of those in the moment things, he spent half the lap blocking me trying to ruin my race. I was upset, but it’s not an excuse, I shouldn’t have done it and I apologize for that.
“I don’t think it’s what Helmut [Marko] likes, it’s not my character, it’s not something I should have done.”
Lawson was also involved in contact with Franco Colapinto late on that saw the Williams driver penalized for causing a collision, but he felt that punishment was harsh.
“I tried to give him space in Turn 1 and then I gave him plenty of space in Turn 2, but he obviously carried a lot of speed in. At that point when I saw the speed he was carrying, I tried to brake and get out of it, but I ran out of space and it was just a clumsy incident. I don’t really put it on him, I don’t think it was really his fault, it was just an unnecessary incident.”
With RB slipping 10 points behind Haas in the constructors’ championship, Lawson says the biggest downside of the weekend was not being able to capitalize on the pace he felt he had at his disposal.
“With the speed we had, it’s frustrating to not score points. That was a goal I was going in and we had a fast race car, just spent the whole race in traffic.
“The strategy was probably the hardest part of that race, I think. We just couldn’t get the clean air to utilize it. Once those fast cars got us early on, we were just stuck in traffic and it was a frustrating race. It’s unfortunate, obviously the incidents are unnecessary as well and frustrating.”