Liam Lawson: I Don't Understand Why Arvid Wasn't Penalized After Ruining My Floor

Pulse Sports Team 07:56 - 27 September 2026

Liam Lawson stated he “doesn’t understand” why the Azerbaijan Grand Prix stewards didn't take further action against his Racing Bulls teammate, Arvid Lindblad, who spun him during the Baku race.

After Alex Albon crashed on lap 30, prompting a safety car deployment, Lawson and Lindblad were running 12th and 14th respectively before the restart.

As the green flags waved, Franco Colapinto locked up, taking out both his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. Meanwhile, Lindblad braked later than Lawson and Esteban Ocon ahead of him, found himself squeezed between the two cars, and spun his teammate.

The stewards deemed the collision was caused by “the limited space [Lindblad] had available and the chain reaction caused by the incident ahead.” Consequently, Lindblad avoided a penalty, but Lawson, though speaking before reviewing the incident, didn't entirely agree with the outcome.

“Coming into Turn 1, I had a massive turbo lag and no power, so Esteban was alongside me. I tried to leave him space, and then I was just hit so hard from the left that it put a hole in the floor, and after that, we couldn't fight. I really don't know what happened,” the New Zealander recounted. “I always try to stay out of trouble, and this season, obviously, there have been aggressive moments, but… I don't know, trying to squeeze through the middle of two cars like that into Turn 1, I don't think it was ever going to work,” he added. Asked if the stewards' decision was good for the team but not so much for him, Lawson commented: “Great for the team. Obviously, I'm not going to protest against my teammate, but… “I don't understand it because I was hit so hard that it put a hole in my floor. I was just turning into the corner, giving space to the other driver. From my perspective, I don't understand, but let's say it's great for the team.”

Lindblad apologized to his teammate as soon as he had the chance. He reiterated this to the media, while also partly blaming Ocon for the incident, claiming Ocon moved under braking – something the footage does not confirm.

“From where we were, Esteban and I, we had been accelerating and braking about three times on the straight, so it was pure chaos, the battery wasn't in good shape because of that,” the rookie said. “Then everyone braked a bit too late into Turn 1, and I was going to overtake Esteban, but he moved at the last moment, essentially moving under braking, so I had to take evasive action, which meant I locked the front tires slightly and hit Liam. “I said ‘sorry’ on the radio, but ultimately, it wasn't intentional. If you watch the video, you'll see there's nothing intentional about what I'm doing. The stewards said ‘no further action,’ which I'm obviously happy about, but ultimately, I don't know what you want me to do. If we're all on the limit, everyone's braking very late, and the person in front of me moves at the last second… There were a lot of incidents. There was nothing I could do, and that's the situation.” Lindblad added that Racing Bulls told him: “We see that there was nothing more you could have done,” although he still expected “to get a bit of a telling off.”

Despite everything, there were positive moments for the Faenza-based team – Lindblad recovered to seventh place, snatching the position from Ocon by 0.03 seconds, and Alpine clearly failed to score points after Colapinto's mistake. This represents a theoretical 13-point swing in their battle for fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, with Racing Bulls now leading by 15 points.

“The positive is that we scored points as a team. Today we were very, very lucky that Alpine didn't succeed, honestly. We didn't have their pace,” Lawson admitted.

“We accept the result, in a way, because we struggled a lot this weekend; it was one of the first times this season we had difficulty getting out of Q1. So to be best of the rest and score serious points is absolutely incredible. It wasn't an easy weekend, but points are earned on Sunday,” Lindblad agreed.

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