Liam Lawson believes the late deployment of the Safety Car "screwed" his hopes of a points finish.

Following an eventful afternoon, the Kiwi was in tenth, behind Pierre Gasly and ahead of Fernando Alonso when the Safety Car was deployed as a result of Kimi Antonelli's retirement.

While Gasly and Alonso pitted, Lawson stayed out, and two laps from the end the Spaniard was able to pass the RB driver to claim the final point.

"From our side it was a very strong race, we just ended up in the wrong position," he told F1 TV. "We missed the Safety Car line by half a second, probably, and so everybody in front of us boxed and we just got screwed.

"To have it that close after all the work we did in the race, it just sucks," he admitted. "At the end of the day we're here to score points and it's frustrating."

However, the New Zealander wasn't punished for incidents involving Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman.

In the first incident, Lawson was overtaking Albon on the outside at Turn 1 on the opening lap and was well ahead of the Williams at the apex. While defending, Albon collided with the rear of the RB suffering damage to his front wing. The stewards deemed the collision was not the fault of Lawson and took no further action.

In the subsequent incident, Lawson was attempting to overtake Bearman on the inside of Turn 1. The RB was nowhere near the mirror of the Haas at the apex. There was minor contact between the two cars during this attempt and Bearman took the escape road. Both cars maintained their respective positions before the minor collision. The stewards determined this to be a racing incident and took no further action.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by BillH, 8 hours ago

"Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.
A better performance for Lawson over the past couple of races, however, he needs to out qualify and outscore his less experienced teammate, who is doing a very good job and will probably be in Red Bull next season, if not later this season."

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2. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 02/06/2025 21:52

"“From our side it was a very strong race, we just ended up in the wrong position” - this has to be one of the finest excuses ever to be uttered by a racing driver. In fact, it can be used by any driver that isn’t the winner of a race. It’s brilliant. "

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Lawson "screwed" by Safety Car

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