Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson were both handed one-place grid drops after colliding during Friday's Mexico City Grand Prix second practice session at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico. Each driver was also given one penalty point after their cars hit side on.
The clash came 13 minutes into the session, when Verstappen dived down the inside of Lawson at Turn 12 and Lawson held his line through Turn 13 before contact scattered debris across the track and forced a stoppage while it was cleared. That made the penalty immediate news for Sunday’s grid, because the sanction changes where both drivers will line up for the race.
What pushed the case beyond a formal warning was the stewards’ view that similar practice incidents this year had already been flagged to team managers, so this time they escalated it to a grid position drop. Under the usual one-place penalty, a driver falls one spot from wherever qualifying leaves him, so the exact starting order will only be clear after the session that sets the grid.
The drivers did not agree on who caused it. Verstappen said Lawson’s move was “not very smart” and argued it was poor judgment from someone fighting for his seat, while Lawson told his team over the radio, “He literally just drove into me.” Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane was not impressed by either driver.
The incident lands at a sensitive moment for Lawson, who has yet to be confirmed by Racing Bulls for next season. Verstappen and Lawson have also spent time together within Red Bull’s orbit, which gives this brief collision more weight than a routine practice scrape. For now, the stewards have made the consequences clear: both lost a place before the Mexico City Grand Prix even reached qualifying, and both carry an extra penalty point into the weekend.
