Max Verstappen delivers brutal Liam Lawson barb after Mexican Grand Prix collision

Red Bull star Max Verstappen delivered a brutal jab at his former team-mate Liam Lawson after the two drivers came together ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix.

The incident in question occurred during FP2 in Mexico City, with Verstappen going down the inside of Lawson into turn 12 and the two drivers exiting the corner side by side, even making gentle contact.

Verstappen's unhappiness was made clear immediately, putting his hand in up and questioning what Lawson was doing. Neither driver yielded heading into turn 13, though, with Verstappen aiming to get ahead around the outside, and Lawson holding firm on the inside line.

Unfortunately, two did not go into one heading into turn 14, with Lawson using all of the track and forcing the four-time world champion to cut the corner slightly and go over the kerb. This resulted in him colliding with Lawson's Racing Bulls car as he returned to the track.

"He just drove into me, bro," Lawson said on his radio. "He literally just drove into me. Every weekend!"

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Max Verstappen slams Liam Lawson in Mexico City

After the session, both drivers were summoned to see the stewards for driving erratically under Article 2 e) of the FIA International Sporting Code.

Before that, though, Verstappen made his feelings on the incident and Lawson very clear when speaking to Sky Sports in the media pen.

Given that Verstappen and Lawson are part of the same stable, with Racing Bulls being Red Bull's junior team, Verstappen was asked if the incident was just unlucky and if that would be his description of events in the stewards' room. The answer was no.

"Well, I don't think it's called unlucky. Maybe not very smart behaviour, what he was trying to do there," Verstappen said.

"At the end of the day it’s not going to change my weekend, but if I were him, I would be acting a little bit smarter," the four-time world champion continued.

"When you're fighting for your seat, it's not very smart behaviour."

Lawson facing fight to keep Racing Bulls seat

Verstappen, of course, is referring to the fact that Lawson's status at Racing Bulls is still unconfirmed for 2027, with another Red Bull junior, Nikola Tsolov, waiting for his F1 opportunity.

It would be incredibly harsh on Lawson to lose the drive, given he has had such a solid season for the team and sits ninth in the drivers' championship - the highest of any driver outside of the top four teams.

Lawson is also 35 points clear of the next driver in the standings, Pierre Gasly, and has scored more than double the number of points of his rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad, who is also unconfirmed for 2027 at this stage.

Of course, Lawson did score 14 points driving for Red Bull this year, but even if you took those away, he would be in ninth spot with a healthy margin over those below him.

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