{"id":953028,"date":"2026-10-31T10:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953028\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T10:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:28:10","slug":"fia-confirms-penalties-for-max-verstappen-and-liam-lawson-for-clumsy-practice-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953028\/","title":{"rendered":"FIA confirms penalties for Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson for \u2018clumsy\u2019 practice clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> and Liam Lawson have both been penalised following a \u201cclumsy\u201d free practice 2 clash at the Mexico City GP.<\/p>\n

The pair made contact in the stadium section after Verstappen felt aggrieved at being held up by Lawson, with officials slapping both drivers with a one-place grid penalty.<\/p>\n

FIA penalise Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson after Mexico GP stoush<\/p>\n

Heading into the stadium section during the second hour of practice, Verstappen, in the Red Bull, pulled a move down the inside of Lawson in the Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

Lawson held his ground going into Turn 13, as Verstappen waved a hand of frustration in the direction of the New Zealander.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman was shown the edge of the track and, as he came back over the kerb and onto the circuit, the pair made contact.<\/p>\n

While the damage inflicted was not too extensive, Lawson did require a change of front wing, while Verstappen\u2019s bargeboard had seen better days.<\/p>\n

The incident also necessitated a brief red flag to clear the debris on the exit of T13.<\/p>\n

Both Verstappen and Lawson fronted officials following the session, after which stewards slapped both Lawson and Verstappen with identical penalties and judgements.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the approach to turn 12 car 3 was on a preparation lap and car 30 was on a cool down lap preparing for another push lap,\u201d their summaries noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth drivers admitted the moves were unnecessary and \u2018clumsy\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNoting 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from the FIA at the Mexican GP<\/p>\n

FIA confirms massive 50-place grid penalty for the Mexican GP<\/a><\/p>\n

FIA clarifies bizarre Colton Herta Super Licence confusion<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to the stewards\u2019 hearing, Verstappen had branded Lawson as \u2018not smart\u2019 following the incident, reasoning the Kiwi driver faces an uncertain future with Racing Bulls yet to confirm him for F1 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s called unlucky,\u201d Verstappen told Sky Sports when asked if the incident with his former Red Bull teammate was unlucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe not very smart behaviour, what he was trying to do there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I mean, at the end of the day, it\u2019s not going to change my weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I would be him, I would act a little bit smarter. Also, when you\u2019re fighting for your seat, it\u2019s not very smart behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to a one-place grid penalty, the pair also picked up a penalty point on their licences, Verstappen\u2019s first in a 12-month period and Lawson\u2019s fourth.<\/p>\n

Read Next: Verstappen blasts \u2018not smart\u2019 Liam Lawson clash when \u2018fighting for seat\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson have both been penalised following a \u201cclumsy\u201d free practice 2 clash at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,1613,3027,1885,113132,44,82],"class_list":["post-953028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-liam-lawson","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mexican-grand-prix","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}