Sergio Perez gave a withering verdict of Liam Lawson’s driving following the pair’s clash in the Mexican Grand Prix.
The pair tangled on lap 18 while fighting over 10th place. Perez accused his rival of repeatedly forcing him off-track, though the stewards ruled Lawson defended his place legally.The moment ended Perez’s chances of recovering a points finish after starting his home race from 18th on the grid. He picked up damage in the incident which slowed his progress over the rest of the afternoon.
The pair crossed paths again later in the race after Lawson made his first pit stop and rejoined behind the Red Bull. This time there was no collision, but Lawson accused Perez of deliberately slowing him down to hold him up.
Perez couldn’t help but lose time at turn one as he was overtaken by Lance Stroll. But the Aston Martin driver pulled away from him at a surprisingly fast rate.
The Red Bull driver slowed earlier for turn four and Lawson closed in. At the double-right turn six Perez again brought his minimum speed down lower than usual, changing down to second gear instead of his usual third.
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Lawson swarmed over him as they accelerated to turn seven, beginning a sequence of corners in which Lawson had no chance to pass. Perez eased off the throttle here more than the previous lap but ensured he had a good run on the straight to turn 12 to out-run Lawson: This was the only point he gained time compared to the lap before.
Lawson easily passed Perez using DRS as they began lap 41, taking care to guard against a retaliatory lunge up the inside of turn one. Perez soon headed back to the pits for his second pit stop of the day.
The delay proved costly for Lawson. His tyres were 13 laps newer than Stroll’s and the delay behind Perez cost him the chance to get immediately onto the Aston Martin driver’s tail. That meant he missed the chance to pass Stroll before the leaders caught them and he had to slow down for blue flags.
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The upshot for Lawson was that instead of having the chance to pick off Stroll quickly and chase after Pierre Gasly for the final point, he got dragged into a fight with Franco Colapinto behind, in which he sustained damage which ruined his race. If Perez hoped to give Lawson some payback, he succeeded.
Perez and Lawson’s radio messages
| Lap: 38/71 PER: 1’23.740, LAW: 1’23.736 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Have no grip. The front axle is completely dead. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | You’re not the only one complaining of a lack of front grip. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 39/71 PER: 1’23.586, LAW: 1’26.308 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Let’s look at torque seven, torque seven. Be close to Piastri, he’s just boxing this lap. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 40/71 PER: 1’25.538, LAW: 1’43.850 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Stroll passes Perez into turn one Your battery is good. Lawson emerging from the pit lane. |
Hamelin | Fighting Stroll, pit exit. Press and hold overtake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stallard | There’s 31 laps left. We don’t need a gentle introduction. Let’s go. | Hamelin | Lawson emerges behind Stroll and Perez Okay Liam let’s go get some overtakes now. |
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| Lawson | Copy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lawson | Lawson follows Perez through the stadium section Mate he’s blocking me on purpose. |
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| Lap: 41/71 PER: 1’24.347, LAW: 1’21.503 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Lawson at 0.2. | Hamelin | Copy that. Just use the pace. Let’s get back in the rhythm. Next job Colapinto. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Thoughts on the flap angle? | Hamelin | Okay good job, let’s use the pace. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Yeah, let’s go up. Let’s go up two clicks. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 42/71 PER: 1’23.677, LAW: 1’22.259 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hamelin | Colapinto 22.8. Stroll two ahead. One at a time. Let’s get back in there. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2024 Mexican Grand Prix
- McLaren have no regrets over pitting Norris shortly before red flag came out
- Leclerc fined, avoids same penalty as Verstappen after apologising for swearing
- Leclerc not in the clear over swearing as Verstappen claims he went unpunished
- Majority of drivers wanted racing rules to change “straight away” – Russell
- Verstappen was “over the limit” with Norris but others would do same – Leclerc
MichaelN
29th October 2024, 13:36
Times like these always remind me of that excellent press conference after Schumacher won the title in 2000. Reigning champion Mika Häkkinen was asked ‘how do you feel?’ to which he responded: “So sad. But, anyway, congratulations for Michael. (..) I understand that it is sometime another driver’s turn to win, and to be a good winner sometimes you have to be a good loser too. It doesn’t mean you have to be very happy about it to be second or to lose, but to give the enjoyment and pleasure for the driver who has won.”
That’s a real sportsman. Dare I say, a great man.
Squabbling with and blocking Lawson… not so much.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th October 2024, 15:36
Yes, schumacher and hakkinen were friends off track, schumacher also celebrated hakkinen’s championships.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th October 2024, 14:00
Checo definitely has something personal against him.
No other logical explanation & the initial signs already appeared in COTA sprint.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th October 2024, 15:38
Well, the possibility of being replaced by lawson is personal enough, I’d say.
Coventry Climax
29th October 2024, 14:02
I certainly do not deem Perez to be above such ‘tactics’, especially when he so vocally proved that Lawson is very much on his mind, and not just for one lap. That might also explain why racing does not seem to be Perez’ first concern anymore.
Man, what a pathetic weeken performance – again.
However, I’d be very interested to know how laptimes of drivers in general evolve, when they come under attack. The rules do not allow for much traditional defending anymore, and battery power has taken much of its place. And then Pirelli has a huge part in it as well.
For the overtaker, DRS usualy allows for sitting duck easy passes.
So I would not be surprised if there is this drop in laptime for any and all drivers under pressure, at parts of the circuit where overtaking is practically impossible, only to have extra battery power available in parts where any help to stay in front is most welcome. Especially where losing face is at play, or, in the latter stages of a race, points finishes.
Jere (@jerejj)
29th October 2024, 15:38
Every single race lap time for each driver is also viewable on the official FIA site’s event & timing information section for any given round, but the part about DRS couldn’t be more inaccurate on a general level.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th October 2024, 14:13
It can’t be a good feeling when you’re battling your sister/feeder team rather than further up the grid where you should be. Especially if it’s expected for this B team to just move out the way for you.
Oh well, reap what you sew and all that.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
29th October 2024, 14:35
From memory, I can’t think of a more miserable race than the one Perez had at this home GP. It really felt like the end of the road, whether he likes it or not.
tielemst
30th October 2024, 12:02
Crashing out in T1 last year wasn’t great either
Velocityboy (@velocityboy)
29th October 2024, 14:47
The FIA are puny and weak, and as a result, sportsmanship has been replaced with petulance.
Honda
29th October 2024, 14:53
Lawson lost to Stroll and Colapinto who started behind him. Blocking Perez and Piastri did him no favours. These guys were anyways going to finish ahead. I thought he was dumb defending so hard against them. Of course Perez with the damage and losing 60% downforce was not going anywhere and he would try his best to slow Lawson as well. Lawson started P11 and should have ended P11 behind Gasly. With 2 cars out in first lap and Perez limping on damaged car not a great result but better than P16. I don’t think Lawson has earned any respect and now people know how to race him. There will likely be at least 1 more such incident involving Lawson before the end of this year. Probably with Alonso, KMag or Ocon. Perez needs Q3 and stay clean of Lawson though.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
29th October 2024, 16:04
I get that Checo is ‘hurting’, but I think if he takes a step back and looks at where he currently is, he can’t point the finger of blame at anyone. He’s been given more than any of Maxs previous teammates, heck he’s probably been treated better than Webber was at Red Bull.
In nearly a decade and a half in F1, many others with talent have come and gone without getting near a race winning car.
Sunday was just the latest nadir of many, even the greatesy 200 slide PowerPoint titled ‘it’s all Liams fault’ is going to dissuade anyone from seeing where the changes are needed.
Leo B
29th October 2024, 17:39
Perez has definitely over stayed as an F1 driver, and Horner is looking increasingly foolish and bizarre for hanging on to him.
Rejecting Sainz is incomprehensible Mr Horner, that’s what many would say to him.
An Sionnach
29th October 2024, 23:32
Shocking weekend from Pérez. Not quite as bad as the one last year where he hit almost everything on four wheels during the race. Even the Mexican fans might have understood if he was fired for this kind of performance!
FS005
30th October 2024, 2:51
Honestly pretty disgraceful from Perez. He lost seconds a lap in a Redbull at his home GP for no reason other than to screw over a rival.
It didn’t benefit him or his team. And he says that Lawson doesn’t have the right attitude lol.
Dtshangers
30th October 2024, 6:46
Why is Checo fighting for 10th with a top shelf car? He’s MID. Give it up Checo you’re washed up.
Patrick (@paeschli)
30th October 2024, 8:16
Time to replace Perez by Lawson. You could argue that he fought Perez too hard in the first battle, but Perez overtaking manoeuvre was clumsy in the first place.
Instead of showing Perez is a team player, he chose to act as childish, if not even more so, than a driver 12 year younger.