Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix turned into a Red Bull in-fighting story when Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson made contact on track, leaving both cars damaged and the session red-flagged.
The incident happened 13 minutes into second practice. Verstappen tried to pass Lawson up the inside at Turn 12; Lawson held his line through Turn 13, the cars ran side by side, and they collided, scattering debris across the circuit. Stewards handed each driver a one-place grid penalty for Sunday's race plus a penalty point on their superlicence, saying both agreed the move was unnecessary and clumsy. They opted for penalties over a formal warning because team managers had already been cautioned about similar practice-session incidents this season.
Verstappen, a four-time champion with five wins in Mexico, was blunt afterwards, saying Lawson's aggression made little sense for a driver fighting to keep his seat. "If I were him, I would act a little smarter," he told reporters. Lawson countered on team radio that Verstappen "literally just drove into me," while Racing Bulls principal Alan Permane called it "one word, unnecessary" for both drivers.
The timing is awkward for Lawson. The 23-year-old New Zealander has no confirmed seat for next season despite a strong year at Red Bull's sister team: he sits ninth in the drivers' standings on 77 points, well clear of rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad on 38, and has helped Racing Bulls hold fifth in the constructors' championship. He briefly partnered Verstappen at the main team at the start of last season and deputised for him earlier this year. Red Bull is weighing its options, with junior driver Nikola Tsolov among the candidates — the Bulgarian made his own bit of history on Friday as the first driver from his country to take part in an official F1 practice session.
On the timesheets, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc topped second practice ahead of McLaren's world champion Lando Norris, with George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli also ahead of Verstappen, who was fifth. Antonelli's presence near the top matters beyond one session: the 20-year-old Italian could become the sport's youngest-ever world champion on Sunday if he finishes in the top nine.
Why should a travel reader care? The Mexico City Grand Prix is one of the most atmospheric weekends on the F1 calendar, held at the high-altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the capital. Even casual visitors in town for the race get a story worth following — an intra-team feud, a possible record-breaking title, and a grid shake-up that makes Sunday's race less predictable than the practice order suggests. If you're planning a trip around a future edition, this is the kind of drama that makes the tickets worth it.
Credit: Daily Sabah Travel
