The New Zealander criticizes his Racing Bulls teammate's move, which made him lose positions and damaged his floor. Lindblad apologized and helped the team secure a key seventh-place finish.
Liam Lawson left the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with mixed feelings. The New Zealand Racing Bulls driver saw his teammate, Arvid Lindblad, ruin his race with a move he described as incomprehensible. The incident occurred on the first lap after the Safety Car restart when Lindblad attacked on the inside of Turn 1 and hit the rear of Lawson's car, sending him into a spin in the escape area.
"I need to see it. We were all coming towards turn 1 at the restart, and they just hit me from my left. They also put a hole in my floor. I don't really know what gap he was looking for between the two going into turn 1; I just don't understand it. Obviously they are big points for the team, but it's a shame for our race" declared Lawson who after the incident fell in the classification and finished twelfth in his return to Racing Bulls.
Lindblad, for his part, offered his version of the events and assured that he had no other option: "At the back where we were, we had gone about three times on the straight before we actually went because the pack wasn't properly grouped at all. It was an absolute disaster entering turn 1; everyone was moving a lot. Obviously it's a shame to hit Liam, but if you see the incident, you can see there wasn't much I could do. I came and immediately apologized to him, and obviously I apologized to the team because we could have both been up there today," explained the 19-year-old Briton.
Despite the incident, Lindblad continued and finished seventh after overtaking Esteban Ocon at the finish line by a narrow margin of 0.030 seconds. This was an important result in the midfield fight against Alpine, especially because Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto retired from the race after an internal crash that was even more damaging and happened almost at the same time as the Racing Bulls' one.
"On the positive side, let's take the points. It's been a very difficult weekend, and we struggled to get out of Q1. To be honest, being here now and scoring good points while our competitors are out is incredible given the difficulties, so I'm very happy; we had some fortune on our side. Pace matters, but points matter in the end. Today we scored the points," stated Lindblad.
The Briton also wanted to keep perspective and acknowledge that the team was not fast in Baku: "The main focus is to understand why we have had difficulties this week, why we haven't been faster but of course, we are absolutely delighted to score solid points on a weekend in which we are not fast. It's always about limiting damage when you're struggling on a weekend," he noted.
Lawson, despite the frustration, agreed with his teammate's analysis: "We were very lucky today; they were much faster than us and have been all weekend. We need to try to turn it around next week," the New Zealander concluded.
The incident between the two Racing Bulls drivers leaves a bitter lesson, but also a positive outcome for the team that knew how to capitalize on the circumstances and score valuable points in the midfield fight.
