Lawson and Lindblad on contrasting fortunes at the Mexico City Grand Prix
Liam Lawson started the Mexico City Grand Prix from the pit lane and finished in the points, while Arvid Lindblad’s strong run ended in the barriers.
Lawson’s weekend began with a one-place grid penalty for an incident with Max Verstappen in second practice. He qualified eighth but was disqualified from qualifying for a technical breach on his in-lap in Q2. Racing Bulls then made further changes to his car, including to the suspension set-up, which forced a pit lane start.
The race began badly for him. “The first part was really a big struggle for us,” Lawson said. “We missed the VSC, didn’t box, and then we boxed for our second stop the lap before the Safety Car, so it was just really unlucky and lost a lot of race time.”
The red flag after Valtteri Bottas’s crash reset his afternoon. “The red flag helped us,” he said. “We got a restart from P15 and then I just tried to attack as much as possible. So yeah, it’s a good recovery for us.”
Lawson crossed the line ninth, less than a second behind Franco Colapinto, and was promoted to seventh when penalties were applied to Piastri and Colapinto. That earned him six points. He still thinks there was more on offer. “Honestly, I feel like we could have got one more at the end there,” he said. “I probably should have gone for a gap that was there on Franco, but I thought he’d cover and then he didn’t and then I just got stuck behind.”
The result takes Lawson to 83 points in the standings. He called it “a pretty tough weekend since Friday” and said he is focused on maximising every minute in the car. “At the moment, that’s probably the most enjoyable part, driving the car,” he said. “It’s less than a week now and then we go again in Brazil.”
Lindblad had a very different afternoon. He started eighth and was running in the points when he and Piastri came together on lap 59. Piastri tried an outside move into Turn 1, ran out of room and collided with Lindblad, sending the Racing Bulls into the wall. The stewards later penalised Piastri for the contact and found he was never fully alongside Lindblad.
Lindblad was careful in his comments straight after the race. “I don’t want to properly comment on it until I’ve seen all the footage,” he said. “But in the end, the pace was good. We were in a genuine fight with him. He was stuck behind me for over 10 laps, so I was committed to fighting for that position and I wasn’t just going to let him drive around the outside of me easily.”
He took plenty from the performance, which came after a difficult stretch. “I’ve been completely honest. I lost a bit of my rhythm after Madrid and Baku, where I had the two crashes,” he said. “I wasn’t as confident to hustle the car as much and put it on the limit. I could kind of do OK in qualifying, but in the race it was showing more.”
Mexico City was different. “I felt more like myself,” Lindblad said. “I think the race pace was really good, which has been a weakness of mine for the last few races. So just happy to be back in my mojo again and looking forward to Brazil now.”
Lindblad stays on 38 points. Both Racing Bulls drivers now head to São Paulo on 8 November.
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