Liam Lawson was left puzzled by the stewards’ decision not to penalise Arvid Lindblad after the two Racing Bulls drivers collided during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, although the rookie explained that a late move from Esteban Ocon played a major role in the Turn 1 contact.
Despite seeing its two drivers collide in Baku, Racing Bulls still left Azerbaijan with 13 points and increased its advantage over Alpine to 15 points in the battle for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship. Arvid Lindblad appears to have avoided punishment partly because of the sequence involving Esteban Ocon immediately ahead of him.
Racing Bulls capitalises on Alpine’s Baku disaster
On a weekend when the Alpine cars visibly appeared faster than Racing Bulls, the Faenza-based team not only limited the damage but actually scored considerably more points than the Enstone squad, taking advantage of race situations that would have been difficult to predict before the event.
Both A526s went off at Turn 1 at the first restart following a wild move from Franco Colapinto. The Argentine misjudged his braking point, ran deep into the corner and hit Pierre Gasly’s sister car. Both Alpine drivers were forced to retire.
At almost exactly the same moment, Racing Bulls came close to suffering a similar fate. Arvid Lindblad misjudged his approach to Turn 1 and made contact with Liam Lawson. Liam Lawson had been running in the points at the time but dropped to the back of the field as a result.
The unusual aspect of the incident was that, just ahead of them, Franco Colapinto had eliminated himself, Pierre Gasly and an innocent Lando Norris, who only moments earlier had overtaken Andrea Kimi Antonelli around the outside. Arvid Lindblad was then able to continue along the correct racing line and suddenly found himself inside the points.
The rookie subsequently produced an excellent recovery, passing both Haas cars before finishing the Grand Prix in seventh place, effectively best of the rest. That result helped Racing Bulls collect 13 points and extend its advantage over Alpine to 15 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
Liam Lawson left with floor damage after Turn 1 contact
Despite the strong final result for Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson’s frustration after the race was understandable.
“Coming into Turn 1 I had a huge delay in the boost response and I had no power, so Esteban was alongside me,” Liam Lawson explained. “I tried to leave him space and then I got hit so hard on the left that it put a hole in the floor and from that point onwards we couldn’t really fight. I’m not completely sure what happened.”
“I’ve always tried to stay out of trouble and, obviously, at certain points this year we’ve been aggressive, but… I don’t know, going into Turn 1 trying to go between two cars like that, I don’t think it was ever going to work.”
Asked whether the stewards’ decision was positive for Racing Bulls but less satisfactory for him personally, Liam Lawson replied: “Great for the team. Obviously I’m not going to protest against my team-mate, but…”
“I don’t understand it, because I was hit so hard that I ended up with a hole in the floor. I was simply turning into the corner, leaving space for the other driver. From my point of view I don’t understand it, but let’s say it’s great for the team.”
Arvid Lindblad explains how Esteban Ocon triggered the incident
Arvid Lindblad immediately went to apologise to Liam Lawson after the race, acknowledging that the move had been far from ideal for either his team-mate or Racing Bulls.
When Arvid Lindblad later explained the incident from his perspective, however, the rookie highlighted the sequence of circumstances that led to the contact at Turn 1.
“From where we were, Esteban and I went back and forth about three times on the straight: we were braking, then going again and braking again, so it was complete chaos and the battery wasn’t in the ideal window because of that,” Arvid Lindblad explained.
“Then everyone braked a little too late into Turn 1 and I was about to try to overtake Esteban, but he moved at the last moment, basically moving under braking. I therefore had to make a move to avoid him, which caused me to lock the front slightly and hit Liam.”
Arvid Lindblad insisted there had been no intention to make contact with his team-mate.
“I said ‘sorry’ to him over the radio, but ultimately it wasn’t intentional. If you watch the video again you can see there’s nothing intentional in what I do. The stewards said ‘no further action’, which obviously I’m happy about, but in the end I don’t know what I was supposed to do.”
“If we’re all on the limit, everyone is 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 now it’s happened.”
Racing Bulls backed Arvid Lindblad after stewards decision
Arvid Lindblad added that Racing Bulls had told him: “We can see there wasn’t much you could have done,” although the rookie admitted that he had still expected to “get some telling off” after hitting his team-mate.
Ultimately, Racing Bulls escaped what could have been a disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a remarkably strong points return. Despite the collision between Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, the team scored 13 points and strengthened its position against Alpine before Formula 1 moves on to Malaysia.
The next round forms part of the revised 2026 Formula 1 calendar, with the championship heading from Baku to Sepang before continuing to Singapore.
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