‘Moron’ Liam Lawson declares ‘a very Max move’

Liam Lawson may have been the first part in what was arguably the best double overtake of the season, and all he could do was applaud Max Verstappen.

Lawson was overtaken by Verstappen twice during the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the New Zealander branded a “moron” by Verstappen at the second asking late in the race.

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But before the Lap 63 moment, Lawson found himself under attack from not just Verstappen, but also Hamilton.

Pitting on laps 13 and 14 respectively, with Hamilton stopping first, the Ferrari driver got the undercut on Verstappen but by metres.

The pair came up to pass Lawson, only for Verstappen to brake late into Turn 1 and pass them both up the inside in one corner.

“I was just trying not to get in the way and be too much involved,” Lawson told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media. “I wasn’t getting lapped, so I didn’t have to let them go.

“I didn’t expect him to go by.

“Obviously, I saw the late lunge. It ended up costing me so much time behind them, which at the time was a bit stressful, but it was a good move.

“It was a very Max move.”

It was also “very Max” to complain about backmarkers – this time Lawson being of those – later in the race.

Fighting for second place in the Grand Prix, Verstappen came up behind Lawson and his Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad fighting for a top ten position.

The squabbling teammates did notice the Red Bull on a day when several drivers complained about the blue-flag warning system not working.

The two held up Verstappen on Lap 63 with the Dutchman branding them “morons”.

“Oh, they should get a penalty,” he bemoaned on the team radio. “This is f**king ridiculous, these morons! My God!”

Lindblad explained that while Racing Bulls was doing everything possible to avoid getting in the way of the frontrunners, the blue-flag system caused problems on the day.

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“It’s not too difficult, because we have the virtual mirror so we know the car in front and behind, and we can see the gaps, and we have mirrors, which makes it a bit easier,” he explained.

“I think it’s more for the cars that were coming through, that it was just a bit of a shame, maybe. But yeah, it wasn’t ideal.

“I remember at one point I was coming around on lap seven, and I saw blue flags for Checo, which, you know, is lap seven, so he can’t be that far back. So I don’t really know what was going on with the system.

“Then they never showed the numbers. They just showed a blue flag, which was not the most useful message, but the team helped me out, and I was looking at my deltas on the dash to try to get out of the way to try to not disturb the leaders’ race as much.”

Verstappen went on to finish the Grand Prix in second place with Lawson and Lindblad eighth and tenth respectively.

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