The key facts

  • Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lawson (Racing Bulls) will each drop one place on the starting grid for the Mexico City Grand Prix
  • Each received one penalty point on their super licence
  • The incident between turns 12 and 14 brought out red flags

Penalties for a practice collision

The FIA announced on Saturday that Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls each received a one-place grid penalty for the Mexico City Grand Prix, as well as one penalty point on their super licences, following a collision during Friday's second practice session, Anadolu reports.

What happened on track

The incident occurred between turns 12 and 14 of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez: Verstappen attempted to attack Lawson, the cars made contact, both sustained damage, and red flags were shown while the debris was cleared from the track. According to the FIA, Verstappen was on an preparation lap at the time, while Lawson was completing a cooling-down lap ahead of a new fast lap.

The stewards' reasoning

The stewards described the behaviour of both drivers as 'unacceptable', 'particularly given the warning issued at the team principals' meeting earlier that same day'. In their ruling, both drivers admitted the manoeuvres were unnecessary and 'clumsy'. The stewards explained their choice of grid penalties rather than formal warnings by citing similar incidents earlier in the season and a warning issued to the teams before Friday practice. As a result, both will drop one position from their qualifying results on the starting grid for Sunday's race. In the practice session itself, Verstappen set the fifth-fastest time and Lawson the ninth.