Brundle points finger at guilty party in Perez-Lawson F1 clash

Martin Brundle has pinned blame on Liam Lawson for the contact he had with Sergio Perez during the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The pair battled for position through Turns 4 and 5 during the race with damage inflicted on Perez’s car.

It marked another blip in a dismal weekend for Perez, whose future at Red Bull is in serious doubt.

The stewards deemed the matter a racing incident – however Brundle doesn’t think Perez was granted enough room by his rival.

“Liam Lawson and home hero Sergio Perez had a fierce battle which eventually damaged the floor and sidepod of Perez’s car, the very car which Lawson hopes to be driving sooner rather than later,” Brundle wrote in his latest Sky F1 column. 

“It was deemed a racing incident, although I thought Lawson moved over rather too much in the Turn 4 braking zone, and the next two corners were all rather clumsy between them.”

The race was Lawson’s second of his late-season comeback, having been called up to replace Daniel Ricciardo for the final rounds of the campaign.

Although deeming the New Zealander to be in the wrong, Brundle admitted to being impressed by how quickly Lawson is showing confidence behind the wheel.

“I do admire how much confidence the likes of Lawson and fellow newcomer Franco Colapinto have, even if they both ended up clashing in the closing stages, with Colapinto penalised,” he added.

“As we all did, they will learn the hard way that you can’t throw heavy and powerful F1 cars on very sticky tyres around in quite the same way you can in the junior formulae.”