As Motorsport.com Italia reports, Racing Bulls managed to bag 13 crucial points and extend their advantage over Alpine to 15 total points in the Constructors' Championship during an unpredictable race in Baku, despite a collision between teammates Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad at turn 1.
Throughout the weekend, the Alpine cars appeared visibly faster than the Racing Bulls, but chaotic race situations completely changed the script. Both A526 cars were eliminated at turn 1 during the first restart due to an incident when Franco Colapinto misjudged his braking point, locking up and smashing directly into his teammate Pierre Gasly, forcing both out of the race.
Arrivando a curva 1 avevo un enorme ritardo nella risposta del boost e non avevo potenza, quindi Esteban era al mio fianco,
At the exact same moment, chaos struck the Racing Bulls garage as well. Arvid Lindblad miscalculated his entry into turn 1 and delivered a heavy blow to the side of Liam Lawson, who was running inside the points. The contact dropped the New Zealander to the very back of the classification. Ahead of them, Colapinto also wiped out an innocent Lando Norris, who had moments earlier passed Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the outside.
Despite dropping down the order, Lindblad navigated his way forward, overtaking both Haas cars to finish the grand prix in seventh position. It was a recovery drive that salvaged a massive haul for the team. Liam Lawson, however, was left completely baffled by the lack of punishment for his teammate after the race.
“Arrivando a curva 1 avevo un enorme ritardo nella risposta del boost e non avevo potenza, quindi Esteban era al mio fianco,” Lawson explained, detailing how he tried to leave space before taking a massive hit to the left side that punched a hole in his floor. “Non la capisco, perché sono stato colpito così forte da ritrovarmi con un buco nel fondo.”
Arvid Lindblad immediately apologized to Lawson after the chequered flag. The rookie pointed to erratic moves ahead of him on the straight and a late defensive shift from Esteban Ocon under braking as the catalyst for the crash, which forced him to take evasive action, lock his front brakes, and hit Lawson. The stewards ultimately took no further action, leaving the team with a heavily padded points finish as they head toward Malaysia.
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