Sarcastic Liam Lawson team radio emerges in untelevised Dutch GP footage

Untelevised team radio footage from the Dutch Grand Prix has uncovered Liam Lawson’s sarcastic response to Max Verstappen’s aggressive move on the opening lap at Zandvoort.

Lawson was recalled to the senior Red Bull team for the Dutch Grand Prix as a substitute for Isack Hadjar, who was ruled out with a wrist injury.

Liam Lawson team radio emerges after Max Verstappen wheel banging

The New Zealander impressed on his return to a Red Bull seat, lapping close to Verstappen in qualifying and finishing seventh on race day.

Verstappen’s race ended when he crashed at the final corner at the end of the opening lap in drying conditions.

That came after an entertaining dice between the pair earlier in the lap, which saw Lawson briefly pass his illustrious teammate.

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Verstappen regained the place with a forceful move on the exit of Turn 3, with the Red Bull drivers banging wheels at one stage.

Lawson was heard commenting in the aftermath of the collision: “Really nice…”

Despite coming home seventh, Lawson crossed the line a massive 47.5 seconds behind sixth-placed Oscar Piastri.

As early as Lap 11, Lawson was heard asking his temporary race engineer Richard Wood for ways to gain more lap time at Turns 7, 9 and 10.

Lawson was surprised when informed that Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari driver, was achieving a higher apex speed at Turn 7, the fast right-hander.

The full exchange went as follows:

Lawson: “Is there anything different I can try 9 and 10?”

Wood: “Recommend entry 7, entry 7. So Hamilton is backing off entry speed to 9 and 10.”

Lawson: “What about 7?”

Wood: “So Hamilton apex speed is faster Turn 7. Faster apex speed Turn 7.”

Lawson: “That’s insane.”

Lawson declared himself satisfied with his performance at Zandvoort, admitting that he did not have the pace to challenge the cars in front given his lack of experience with the Red Bull.

He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “I’m sure there’s things that I can do better in the race and I’ll try and reflect on it.

“But in terms of positions, I don’t think we had the speed to match the guys in front.

“But it’s been a good weekend. It was good to extract everything out of quali yesterday. It’s been tough to try and get my head around this car in a short space of time, but I’ve enjoyed it.

“The car is completely different [to the Racing Bulls], obviously aerodynamically, and as well, there are always things that personally, as drivers, we try and make our cars comfortable for us and there’s some things that when you switch a car for a weekend, you can’t just automatically change those things.

“So there’s stuff in this car that aren’t the same as mine in terms of just driver comfort that I’ve had to get my head around without being too specific, but that stuff that has probably been the most challenging.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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