Liam Lawson said he accepts the stewards’ revised verdict on his collision with Carlos Sainz Jnr, having previously said his rival’s penalty was justified.
The Dutch Grand Prix stewards overturned their decision to blame Sainz for the incident between the pair at Zandvoort after Williams requested they review it. Although the stewards were unable to cancel the 10-second time penalty he had already served for the collision, they rescinded the two penalty points he originally received.
Immediately after the race Lawson said Sainz’s original penalty was justified. “For it to be his corner he has to be ahead at the apex,” said Lawson in Zandvoort. “He wasn’t anywhere near that today so that’s why he got a penalty for it, I’m guessing.”
Lawson attended the hearing into Sainz’s penalty last week and contested Williams’s claim that he briefly lost control of his car. However the stewards accepted the argument put forward by Williams and used to justify their decision to rescind Sainz’s penalty.
Nonetheless Lawson said he now agrees the collision was a racing incident. “Honestly, every incident is going to be slightly different in its own way,” he said ahead of this weekend’s race in Baku. “You have regulations, written as they are, and we’re always trying to maximise them and race to them as much as we can.
“I think we all probably agree that they’re not always right or we feel they can be slightly better, but it’s very hard to write a clear set of regulations in Formula 1 when every single scenario is different. For me, it didn’t make a difference — it was a racing incident.
“If you look at it on TV, that’s what it looks like, I would say, as well. I have no problem with it, that’s for sure.”
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