Lawson unhappy with Leclerc’s move: Maybe it’s his speciality

Liam Lawson finished seventh in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. After the race, the stewards ruled that Charles Leclerc deserved a five-second penalty for his move at Turn 12, effectively undoing the outcome of an entertaining battle. Lawson was restored to seventh and had little sympathy for the Ferrari driver’s actions.

Ferrari endured a dreadful Sunday in Brazil, but Liam Lawson excelled once again. He passed Lando Norris for second on the opening lap and enjoyed his moment in the spotlight. As the race progressed, however, the superior pace of the McLarens, Mercedes and Red Bulls began to tell.

Lawson once again found himself leading the midfield, tasked with fending off the Ferraris, which were struggling badly in Brazil. Leclerc forced his way past Liam for seventh with an aggressive move late on, but the pass ultimately did not stand. The stewards handed the Monegasque a five-second penalty, dropping him back to eighth.

“I think it was his wing that hit my tyre. So I think we got really lucky,” Lawson sighed after the race. “I feel like it was exactly like his GP2 move to Abu Dhabi, like on [Alex] Albon years ago.”

“He did the same kind of thing, so maybe it’s his specialty. I don’t know if it’s legal or not. We’ll obviously go and review it, but it was a good battle overall,” Lawson added.

Lawson was referring to the final Formula 2 race of 2017 in Abu Dhabi, where Leclerc passed then-ART Grand Prix driver Alex Albon on the last lap to snatch victory. The stewards deemed that move clean at the time; nine years later, much to Liam’s delight, they intervened.

The New Zealander can once again leave a weekend knowing he extracted the maximum from it. “I mean, crazy race. Honestly, I had a really good start, good grip in Turn 1. Obviously, I made up a place, and then, to be honest, I was thinking I might try and attack Kimi at some point in the lap,” said Lawson.

“But once the pace stabilised, they’re a lot quicker than us, and we started to fall back. We were damaging our tyres, quite a lot more than they were,” the New Zealander explained.

“I think the pace on the dry was okay. And then at the end, yeah, I tried to keep Charles there. We had some contact in [Turn] 12. I’ll go and review it. I don’t really know exactly what to say yet,” Lawson added.

He ultimately takes home seventh place, and Brazil was another weekend in which he avoided a poor performance that could give Red Bull a reason to drop him. It sounds incredible, but he faces the very real prospect of being out of Formula 1 in 2027, even though it is hard to argue that he is not among the best drivers of the season.

“I had a strong race. I would have liked it to stay wet the whole race. It would have been cool. Probably would have had more of a shot there. But, at the moment, we’re topping the midfield as a team, and that’s what we’re targeting every weekend,” he sighed.