‘I’m not just going to get out of his way’ – Lawson frustrated after fierce battle with Perez in Mexico

Liam Lawson ended an eventful weekend in Mexico with zero points and a damaged car after some intense on–track battles, including a particularly heated exchange with his Red Bull colleague Sergio Perez.

In his second race weekend with RB since he was drafted in to replace Daniel Ricciardo, the New Zealander showed signs of strong pace over the 71–lap Grand Prix, but his day was overshadowed by an intense early fight with Perez.

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After qualifying in P12, Lawson started the race on the hard tyres to execute an inverted strategy and was having a productive stint – with the Mexican driver sailing through the pack, the two came face-to-face in a battle for P10.

Perez marginally got ahead at Turn 4 before the RB forced him wide, and they continued to challenge each other for the position over the next few corners before Lawson eventually came out on top.

The duel left the 34-year-old with sidepod damage that ultimately played its part in discounting him from the points, with Lawson concluding later on that Perez was “obviously upset” following a short chat with him.

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“I don’t know where he wanted me to go,” the RB driver said. “I gave him space at [Turn] 4, he came in super late. At that point of the race we had just got some clean air and honestly our pace wasn’t bad so I’m not just going to get out of his way.

“I gave him space in [Turn] 4, he drove me off and then didn’t give me space in [Turn] 5. I was on the lock–stop trying to turn the corner and avoid a collision but I had nowhere to go. It’s frustrating, it wasn’t my intention.”

With the RB enjoying fresh upgrades introduced in Austin, Lawson’s pace could have seen him cross the line in the top 10, but a similar battle with the Williams of Franco Colapinto left him struggling in the latter stages of the race.

He spent a significant chunk of time in traffic before contact in the duel with the Argentine saw him pick up front wing damage that forced another pit stop, leading to him finishing just ahead of Perez in P16.

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Reflecting on the result, he said: “Very disappointing, especially when we had a package that was strong this weekend. Obviously a tough race – we tried the strategy that worked last week and it just didn’t work today.

“We needed that clean air and unfortunately we spent the whole race just behind the gearbox of another car so it’s just frustrating.”