{"id":49627,"date":"2026-10-31T15:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T13:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=49627"},"modified":"2026-10-31T15:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T13:56:32","slug":"verstappen-lawson-get-grid-drops-after-mexico-practice-clash","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/verstappen-lawson-get-grid-drops-after-mexico-practice-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen, Lawson get grid drops after Mexico practice clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Red Bull&#8217;s Max Verstappen and Racing Bulls&#8217; Liam Lawson received one-place grid drops after they collided on track in Friday&#8217;s Mexico City Grand \u200bPrix second practice session.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Both drivers were also given a penalty point each \u200cafter the two cars hit each other side on.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Stewards heard from both after the session, with the drivers agreeing what had happened was unnecessary and clumsy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The stewards said in a statement they decided \u200bto escalate the penalty from the usual formal warning to a grid position \u200bdrop because they had warned team managers earlier in the light \u2060of similar incidents this year between drivers in practice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The pair both contracted to Red \u200bBull, which owns the two teams\u00a0 went wheel to wheel 13 minutes into the session, \u200bwith four-time world champion Verstappen diving down the inside of Lawson at Turn 12. The New Zealander held his ground through Turn 13 before they made contact.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The contact scattered debris across the track, \u200bwith the session halted for it to be cleared.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lawson and Verstappen were teammates at \u200bRed Bull this year while Isack Hadjar was injured and also briefly for two races at the \u200cstart \u2060of last season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Maybe not very smart behaviour what he was trying to do there,&#8221; Verstappen told reporters before seeing the stewards. &#8220;At the end of the day, it is not going to change my weekend, but if I were him, I would act a little \u200bsmarter, and when you&#8217;re \u200bfighting for your \u2060seat, it&#8217;s not very smart behaviour.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;That&#8217;s not very sensible behaviour from someone in his position, to pick a fight with me.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lawson, who \u200bhas yet to be confirmed by Racing Bulls for next \u200bseason, said \u2060over the team radio, &#8220;He literally just drove into me.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane was not impressed by either driver.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;One word\u00a0 unnecessary. And I say that of both of them. I \u2060haven&#8217;t \u200bheard what Max has said. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s got \u200bhis opinions and I&#8217;m sure Liam has his opinion. But mine is, it&#8217;s just not needed and they \u200bcan both do better,&#8221; he told the <i>BBC.<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13450,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-49627","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Lawson and Verstappen were teammates at \u200bRed Bull this year.","published_date":"","news_description":"Lawson and Verstappen were teammates at \u200bRed Bull this year.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49629,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/49627\/revisions\/49629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=49627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}