Liam Lawson under Hulkenberg scrutiny after FIA decision at Italian GP

Nico Hulkenberg said his incident with Liam Lawson at Monza “felt a bit sketchy”, with Lawson’s often-staunch defensive tactics being “his signature” move.

Hulkenberg and Lawson made contact heading into Turn 1 at the restart after an early red flag, while a subsequent incident into the Roggia chicane was investigated by the stewards.

Liam Lawson ‘just likes to squeeze’ as Hulkenberg talks ‘signature’ move

Lawson, standing in at Red Bull once more, started from the pit lane and made his way into the pack in the opening laps, before the grid was reformed after Charles Leclerc’s heavy crash at Parabolica.

Onboard footage of the New Zealander saw Hulkenberg move across the front of his car heading towards the first braking zone, with the Williams of Carlos Sainz also looking to find space on the outside.

Afterwards, Hulkenberg had looked to move alongside at Curva Grande before the next braking zone, but his requirement of putting two wheels off the circuit led to a stewards investigation, with no further action ultimately taken.

While he acknowledged there are “no hard feelings” with his on-track rival, talk among the drivers meetings is such that, at high speeds, leaving the mandatory one-car width of space is highly important.

“He just likes to squeeze,” Hulkenberg said of Lawson after the race to PlanetF1.com and accredited media.

“He always likes to squeeze people when you go next to him. He never really wants to leave the car [width]. It’s his signature. It’s no hard feelings, but it’s just a bit tricky.

“I would need to see from the outside, but in briefings, we said that this should be taken seriously, and especially at those speeds, felt a bit sketchy at the time from the car.”

As for how Lawson’s race panned out, he needed to pit after he and Hulkenberg made contact at the restart. With many drivers going to the end of the race on the same set of tyres on which they restarted, he was left with an uphill battle to make it into the points.

Lawson revealed he had lost a mirror during the race, too, and his extra stop left ground to recover which ultimately proved too much.

“I had a good first lap from the pit lane and made up quite a few places and then, at the restart, I lost part of my front wing with Nico, so we had to box for a new one and lost like 30 seconds, so it’s a shame,” he explained.

“We had very good speeds in the race, but with the way the strategy was, obviously nobody really boxed after that, other than the guys that boxed in the VSC, so we just had too much time to make up.”

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Asked about Hulkenberg’s reaction to being ‘squeezed’ on track, Lawson said of what took place heading into Turn 4: “Probably exactly what he did to me, I probably did to him.

“I lost my mirror, so I couldn’t see on the right-hand side of my car, but if I squeezed him, which maybe I did, I didn’t mean to, but I’m guessing.

“Obviously, he wouldn’t have meant to do it to me either, but it broke my front wing, and we had to box for a new one.”

Hulkenberg went on to cross the line 12th for Audi, while Lawson took 14th place, with neither driver scoring points.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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