Both cars were left needing repairs after the incident, with Lawson’s front wing and Verstappen’s bargeboards damaged.
Liam Lawson went wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen on the first practice day of the Mexican Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images
“[I’d say it’s] not very smart behaviour, what he was trying to do there,” Verstappen said of Lawson after practice. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to change my weekend.
“If I were him, I’d be a bit smarter. When you’re fighting for your seat, it’s not very smart behaviour.”
Incident aside, Lawson had made a promising start to the race weekend.
His best effort of 1m 18.455s was good enough for ninth in the second session (FP2), and 0.628s off the pace set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who topped both sessions and set the best lap of the day with a lap of 1m 17.827s.
The Kiwi missed the first session to allow Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov his first taste of a Formula One weekend in a Racing Bulls car, with the team understood to be torn between which of the two will be on the grid in 2027.
And while Tsolov did impress with a best lap of 1m 19.604s in FP1 on soft tyres, Lawson shattered that time with his first mark on the same compound in FP2, before finishing more than 1s clear.
Lando Norris was second to Leclerc in FP2, after he also sat out of the first session, after finishing 0.103s back from the Ferrari.
On a weekend where he can claim the drivers championship by finishing ninth or higher, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli finished fourth in FP2, 0.217s off the pace set by Leclerc.
Lawson’s Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad also had a strong first day, by finishing 10th in FP1 and seventh in FP2 – 0.066s ahead of the Kiwi.
Teams will get one final practice session on Sunday morning, before qualifying begins at 10am.
Earlier, as Lawson sat out FP1, Tsolov logged an impressive session in his first experience of a Formula One race weekend. The Bulgarian set the 12th-fastest time in the session to sit 1.476s off the pace set by Leclerc and 0.126s off Lindblad.
Tellingly, Tsolov finished the session as the third-fastest of the rookies, behind Mercedes’ Fred Vesti in third and Red Bull’s Ayumu Iwasa in fifth. Vesti arguably had the best session of any driver, with his best lap only 0.074s off Antonelli.
Nikola Tsolov arrives at the Mexican Grand Prix. Photo / AFP
The only blemish on the session for Tsolov came when he temporarily had to leave the car after suffering from what he said was a loss of blood in his right leg, despite having a seat custom-fitted to Lawson’s cockpit. Tsolov also complained of smoking brakes early in the session, after pushing too hard in the high altitude of the Mexican locale.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.