{"id":37242,"date":"2025-09-02T08:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T12:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37242"},"modified":"2025-09-02T08:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T12:02:39","slug":"lawson-reacts-to-sainz-penalty-ive-been-on-the-receiving-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/09\/02\/lawson-reacts-to-sainz-penalty-ive-been-on-the-receiving-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawson reacts to Sainz penalty: “I’ve been on the receiving end”"},"content":{"rendered":"

After qualifying in the top 10, Liam Lawson<\/a> was in a good position to score points last weekend in Zandvoort.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton’s crash threw a spanner in the works, giving midfield teams a big opportunity to score points.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Lawson, an incident with Carlos Sainz<\/a> essentially ruined his chances of a points finish.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was side-by-side with the Williams driver into Turn 1, at which point he understeered into the #55 car.<\/p>\n

The stewards deemed Sainz as culpable for the clash, which Lawson has given his thoughts on.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Liam Lawson in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by James Sutton\/Getty Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lawson: “That’s how the rules are written”<\/h2>\n

One of the biggest headlines from the Dutch GP was Isack Hadjar<\/a> claiming his first F1 podium.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman kept his nose clean to capitalise on a brilliant qualifying and earn silverware for the first time.<\/p>\n

For the other Racing Bulls driver, things were not so positive.<\/p>\n

Lawson was also in contention for points, but his collision with Sainz relegated him to the back of the field.<\/p>\n

At a circuit where the VCARB<\/a> 02 was very competitive, missing out on points is a tough blow for the Kiwi.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Lawson, unlike Sainz, he was not penalised for the contact.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media post-race, Lawson explained his view on how penalties are awarded.<\/p>\n

The VCARB driver was sympathetic to Sainz’s complaints, but emphasised those are the existing rules of conduct:<\/p>\n

“It just sucks, it sucks for both of us.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It’s obviously not my intention. But it’s lap one of a restart and we have very low grip going into Turn 1.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The rules are written as they are, and we all know how they’re written.<\/em><\/p>\n

“As much as we maybe don’t agree with it, I’ve been on the receiving end of it as well this year – and I disagree with it as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But that’s how they are [the rules] and for it to be his corner, he has to be ahead at the apex.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It wasn’t anywhere near today, so that’s why he got a penalty for it, I’m guessing.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Liam Lawso in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Clive Rose\/Getty Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pressure on Lawson to deliver<\/h4>\n

Generally speaking, last weekend had a few outcomes that Lawson will be unhappy with.<\/p>\n

The most obvious is his final result, 12th, which means he left the 15th round of 2025 empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more importantly, there was significant development concerning the Red Bull<\/a> driver stable.<\/p>\n

Hadjar was obviously a big winner in Zandvoort, securing a podium and cementing himself as a prospect for the future.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Zandvoort was the first time (excluding DNFs) that Lawson finished behind Hadjar since the Spanish GP.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Lawson, Hadjar’s superior points tally and younger age have increased his market value.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old also hasn’t been tainted by an unsuccessful Red Bull spell, something the Austrian team will always consider when assessing Lawson’s future.<\/p>\n

At Red Bull, Tsunoda claimed his first points since Imola in P9.<\/p>\n

More importantly, however, the Japanese driver’s pace was strong on race day – with misfortune preventing him from a potential top 5 finish.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, it is imperative that Lawson finishes the year strongly.<\/p>\n

He still has a chance to keep his seat in F1, especially given his past experience with Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, if he cannot convincingly outperform Hadjar over the coming rounds, Lawson will be in a precarious position.<\/p>\n

If Tsunoda begins to string together solid results at Red Bull, the Kiwi’s challenge becomes even greater.<\/p>\n

Because of this, a recovery this weekend in Monza is essential.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the Racing Bulls have fought for points at virtually every race this year – meaning Lawson will have more chances to strengthen his position.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Bryn Lennon\/Getty Images (Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After qualifying in the top 10, Liam Lawson was in a good position to score points last weekend in Zandvoort. Lewis Hamilton’s crash threw a spanner in the works, giving midfield teams a big opportunity to score points. Unfortunately for Lawson, an incident with Carlos Sainz essentially ruined his chances of a points finish. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[343,2452,1755],"class_list":["post-37242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-liam-lawson"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37259,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37242\/revisions\/37259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}