Liam Lawson has claimed Sergio Perez fights him “like it’s for the world championship”, after the pair aggressively battled in Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
Lawson dropped from eighth to 18th on lap one after failing to deploy his engine’s power for five seconds, which caused a frightful near-miss with Franco Colapinto; he then pitted under the first virtual safety car but ended up behind Perez’ Cadillac, who was up to 14th.
Renowned for his defensive skills, Perez pushed Lawson off the track on the exit of Turn 3 – which he was entitled to do according to the driving guidelines, as the Racing Bulls, on the outside, was not ahead at the apex.
Lawson eventually found a way past Perez on the inside in Turn 11, with slight contact between the pair as the Mexican turned in earlier than the Kiwi.
According to Lawson, Perez was acting out of resentment following their battle in the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix.
At the time, Lawson fought tooth and nail when attacked by the Red Bull driver as the latter attempted to recover from a lowly 18th position in qualifying, in a difficult context when his future alongside Max Verstappen was at stake. Perez had called on Lawson to be “more humble”.
Sixteen months later, with Perez back in F1 after indeed losing his Red Bull seat, Lawson believes there’s a clear connection between the two incidents.
“Two years later he’s not over it, so he’s fighting me like it’s for the world championship and we’re like P16,” Lawson rued. “I mean, obviously I don’t really care too much, my race was already over at that point, so we’ll move on.”
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
Asked by Motorsport if he was surprised that the stewards declared the incident warranted no further action, Lawson said: “It was nothing illegal, he was just aggressive. There was nothing to… honestly I don’t care, it’s for P16.”
Meanwhile, Perez insisted he was just having “a bit of fun” in an otherwise difficult afternoon on Cadillac’s grand prix debut.
“No, I mean, for me it was just racing. It was a bit of fun racing and that’s really it. I was in a much slower car, so I think it’s just fine to race,” Perez said after finishing 16th, three laps down and 2m04s behind Lawson.
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– The Motorsport.com Team