Formula 1’s newest drivers Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson enjoyed an elbows-out battle during the closing stages of the Mexico City Grand Prix. After scoring points for Williams and RB respectively in Austin, Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson were unable to match that feat during the latest race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Colapinto was eliminated from Q1 and that made his chances of securing a top-ten finish relatively low, even if his teammate Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda both crashed out before the first corner and Fernando Alonso failed to finish his 400th race.
Lawson thought he had a good chance of reaching Q3, but Tsunoda’s qualifying shunt brought out the red flag and from 12th on the grid he had a decent shot of adding to his points tally. READ MORE: Who is Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson? Everything you need to knowHowever, a battle between Lawson and Sergio Perez turned nasty and although the Kiwi avoided a penalty, his eventful race wasn’t over yet.
Lawson came up to Colapinto towards the end of the race with the pair both running long on their first stint once again. The RB driver stopped for the first time on lap 39, while Colapinto waited until lap 48 – only Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas extended their stints further. Lawson and Colapinto got too close for comfort, but the Argentinian driver was also heard complaining about the RB star on the team radio, via F1 TV, and what he saw would have been very popular in the Red Bull garage.
Franco Colapinto spotted Liam Lawson blocking Lando Norris during the Mexico City Grand PrixColapinto and Lawson went wheel-to-wheel going into the first corner and then through the following chicane, ended up making contact. Lawson was forced to pit again and Colapinto was handed an unpopular penalty that even the Kiwi driver disagreed with in his post-race interview. However, in the run-up to this battle, Colapinto was closely following the 22-year-old and spotted the blue flags being waved ahead of him with Norris on the charge.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to statsNorris was playing catch up after losing out illegally to Max Verstappen earlier in the race, allowing the two Ferrari drivers to race off into the distance. Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesThe McLaren driver approached the back of Lawson and couldn’t get past him and on the team radio, Colapinto said: “Lawson is blocking Norris man, Lawson is blocking Norris. ”The Argentinian’s race engineer replied and said: “OK, copy that Franco.
”It wasn’t the only time the RB driver got caught out by blue flags as Carlos Sainz was furious with Lawson as he tried to find a way past him to go on and win the race. Liam Lawson having more impact on Max Verstappen’s F1 title fight than Red Bull’s Sergio PerezVerstappen now has a 47-point advantage over Norris going into the final four race weekends of the season. He picked up a severe punishment for his attempts to stay ahead of the McLaren driver during the early stages of the race, but recovered to sixth despite one of the longest pit stops of the season so far serving his 20-second penalty.
Perez was once again nowhere to be seen and while Lawson was slow to move out of the way of Norris, he wasn’t penalised and would have had an impact on the 24-year-old’s lap time. READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford linksA common problem for Red Bull this year has been Perez not being in a position to support Verstappen and their position in the Constructors’ Championship highlights the problem perfectly. Verstappen has a fantastic chance of winning a fourth straight title, but Perez is more than 200 points behind the Dutchman and it’s one of the reasons why Lawson has been linked with a move to Red Bull to replace the 34-year-old.
It means for the first time since Nelson Piquet with Brabham in 1983, a driver could win a championship when their constructor isn’t in the top two teams in the standings.
