Verstappen and Lawson hit with grid penalties for Mexico City GP practice clash

Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson have both been handed one-place grid penalties for their clash in FP2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The pair came together after Verstappen, on a prep lap, tried to overtake Lawson, on a cool down lap, into Turn 12 entering the Foro Sol section of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The pair ran side-by-side into Turn 13, where Lawson pushed Verstappen wide. Verstappen then cut over the Turn 14 curb, with the resulting contact damaging both cars.

The drivers described the incident as “clumsy,” but the stewards were unimpressed, saying “the drivers of both cars behaved in a manner that was considered unacceptable by the stewards particularly in view of the warning that had been given at the team managers meeting earlier this day.”

What was explicitly discussed in the team managers meeting was not disclosed, but the stewards highlighted that as a key reason for issuing a grid penalty for an incident in a practice session.

“Noting that there had been similar incidents this year of actions between drivers in free practice, the stewards have decided to escalate the penalty from that of a formal warning to a grid position penalty particularly in view of the warning that had been provided at the team managers meeting and consistent with other incidents involving contact between the cars in free practice in previous years.”

Prior to the penalties being handed out, Verstappen had remained critical of Lawson after the session ended.

“Maybe not very smart behaviour what he was trying to do there," Verstappen said. “At the end of the day it is not going to change my weekend, but if I were him I would act a little smarter. When you're fighting for your seat, it's not very smart behavior.

"When he saw me coming, he suddenly started to accelerate. I don't know what was going through his head, that he wanted to drive me off the track in the hairpin. That's not very sensible behaviour from someone in his position, to pick a fight with me."

Separately, Isack Hadjar has been summoned to the stewards on Saturday morning for “misconduct relating to an incident in the Formula 1 paddock.”

Hadjar pushed a fan who had tried to put an arm round him and take a selfie as he was walking to the garage before a practice session.