Now, this is wild. Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson are both losing a place on the starting grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after a completely avoidable practice crash that left the stewards shaking their heads.
Here is the thing: both drivers had already missed the opening practice session while rookies Ayumu Iwasa and Nikola Tsolov took over their machines. When FP2 finally got underway, the trouble started early. Verstappen launched a move on Lawson into Turn 12, and Lawson naturally tried to fight back through the stadium section's following left-hand bend. Verstappen bounced over the exit kerb and squeezed back alongside the New Zealander, smashing up the floor on his Red Bull and wrecking the front wing on the Racing Bulls beast.
Naturally, a red flag had to come out to clear the carbon fiber off the tarmac. Once the session resumed, Verstappen scrambled back to finish P5 while Lawson salvaged P9.
After reviewing the telemetry, video angles, and grilling both men, the stewards brought down the hammer with individual one-place grid drops and a penalty point apiece. The official verdict noted that Verstappen was on a preparation lap in Car 3 while Lawson was cooling down in Car 30 for another push lap. Because team managers had already been explicitly warned about this exact behavior earlier in the day, the officials escalated the punishment beyond a simple reprimand. Both drivers actually admitted the moves were completely unnecessary and clumsy.
The fallout off the track was just as sharp. Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane didn't mince words about the coming together, calling it simply unnecessary for a practice session and stating that both of them can do much better. That came after Verstappen openly criticized Lawson for what he deemed not very smart behavior.
It is an absolute mess over a practice session where nobody gains anything. Now, they both start Sunday's race nursing self-inflicted wounds.
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