After showing middle finger to Sergio Perez at the Mexican GP, Liam Lawson apologises to Red Bull driver for his actions

After an intense battle for the 10th position in the early stages of the Mexican Grand Prix, VCARB's Liam Lawson flipped the bird on Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez. However, the rookie from New Zealand apologised to the Mexican racer during the post-race media interaction.

Starting his home race in P18, Perez was looking forward to a good recovery drive at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The #11 racer managed to sail through a lot of traffic in the early stage of the race. However, his progress took a 180-degree turn when the Red Bull driver engaged in an intense battle with Lawson for the final points position.

While executing an overtaking maneuver of turn 4, Perez and Lawson collided, resulting in drastic sidepod damage to the former's RB20 race car. Although the 34-year-old Guadalajara-born racer managed to stay ahead of the latter for a lap, the damage slowed his progress down. This allowed Lawson to leap ahead of Perez under the DRS zone. Expressing his anger, the VCARB racer showed a middle finger to the home hero while passing him.

During the mandatory post-race media interaction, Lawson apologized to Perez.

"It's obviously one of those in the moment things. He spent half the lap blocking me, trying to ruin my race, so I was upset. But it's not an excuse. I shouldn't have done it, and I apologise for that," Lawson said.

His apology was also shared on X by a Red Bull Racing fan page, along with a video of Lawson flipping Perez. Here's a look at the post, captioned:

"Liam Lawson apologizes for flipping Checo off"

Red Bull Chief Helmut Marko also criticized Lawson's actions. He shared his opinion with the Austrian publication ORF.

"An unnecessary collision, where I see Lawson as being more to blame. If it had been someone else, yes. But not the sister team," Marko said.

In the end, Lawson and Perez finished the race in 16th and 17th place, respectively.

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"I think we ruined both our races," - Sergio Perez on speaking with Liam Lawson after the Mexican Grand Prix

A collision between Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson saw the two racers finish at the end of the grid in the Mexican Grand Prix. Following the race, Perez expressed his disappointment in a media interaction, sharing details of his post-race conversation with the VCARB driver.

“He took the whole side of the car off, but I don’t think it’s his fault because he doesn’t get any penalty. He did the same to Fernando (Alonso) last weekend, he did the same to Franco (Colapinto) at the end of the race and no penalty, so maybe depends who you are (in terms of) the penalty you get,” Perez said.

“Yeah, I just told him I think we ruined both our races – I was ahead, there was no need to come together at that point. It was lap 11 of the race, just compromising our race, both of us. I don’t think it was a very clever move," he added.

As of now, Perez is placed eighth in the 2024 driver's championship, behind the Mercedes-AMG duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.