‘I just don’t understand’ – Lawson baffled by Lindblad clash that ‘sucks for our race’ in Baku

Liam Lawson admitted that he didn’t understand what team mate Arvid Lindblad was hoping to achieve in a move that saw the Racing Bulls pair make contact in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the New Zealander summarising that “it sucks for our race”.

After both drivers recovered from being knocked out in Q2, they found themselves in contention for a double points finish heading into the final part of the race, having capitalised on a Safety Car to pit for fresh tyres.

Coming from behind, Lindblad took the inside line at Turn 1 on the restart and tagged the rear of Lawson’s car, sending him into a spin on the run-off area. Lawson dropped down the order as a result and finished P12 upon his return to the team.

Asked for his view on the incident, he said: “I need to watch it. We were all coming into Turn 1 on the restart and I just got smoked from my left. It put a hole in my floor as well.

“I don’t really know what gap he was looking for in the middle of both of us going into Turn 1 – I just don’t understand it. Obviously great points for the team but it sucks for our race.”

Lindblad, meanwhile, believed that he had nowhere else to go, as he explained: “At the back where we were, we’d gone about three times on the straight before we actually went because the field wasn’t bunched up well at all.

“It was just an absolute mess going into Turn 1. Everyone was moving a lot. Obviously a bit of a shame to hit Liam but if you see the incident, you can see there's not much I could’ve done. I came and immediately apologised to him, and obviously I apologised to the team because there could’ve been two of us up there today.”

The 19-year-old was able to continue in the top 10 and ultimately placed P7 after passing Haas’ Esteban Ocon over the line, with a miniscule 0.030s separating the pair.

It marked an important result in the midfield battle against Alpine, especially as Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto retired from the race in Baku following a more detrimental intra-team collision that happened at almost the same time as the one for Racing Bulls.

“On the bright side, let’s take the points,” Lindblad said. “It’s been a very difficult weekend – we struggled to get out of Q1, to be honest. To be here now scoring good points whilst our competitors are out is obviously amazing considering the struggles, so I’m very happy.

“Obviously we had some fortune on our side. The pace is important but it’s the points that matter in the end. We scored the points today.

“The main focus is to understand why we have struggled this week, why we haven’t been faster, but of course we’re absolutely over the moon to score solid points on a weekend that we aren’t fast. It’s always about damage limitation when you’re struggling on a weekend. There’s nothing more we could’ve done today, so it was great.”

Despite the unfortunate conclusion to his race, Lawson agreed with his team mate, adding: “We got very lucky today – they were much quicker than us and they have been all weekend. We need to try and turn it around next week.”