Hadjar pushed ‘a little too much’ in late São Paulo scrap with Lawson

Racing Bulls left Interlagos with smiles, points, and a few scuffed tyres after Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar went wheel-to-wheel in a tense, unseen final-lap scrap at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

The pair delivered the team’s first double top-10 finish since Baku – but it nearly came undone in a flash of contact between the two young chargers.

Lawson pulled off an audacious one-stop strategy to finish seventh, fending off a late surge from his team-mate and a pack of midfield rivals. But on the very last lap, Hadjar tried a bold move around the outside of Turn 1 – the kind of gutsy attempt that makes team principals sweat.

As Hadjar squeezed Lawson on entry, their wheels touched, sending the French rookie into a quick snap of oversteer. Both cars stayed pointing in the right direction, but the close call could easily have ended in disaster.

“I pushed it a little too much,” Hadjar admitted afterwards. “But honestly, it was very fun. He went on a one-stop and on the very last lap, I'm in his gearbox. I think you can't do any better than that. And I tried and I overdid it, kind of my mistake.”

Lawson Keeps His Cool

Lawson, never one to shy away from a hard fight, brushed off the contact with characteristic composure – even defending Hadjar’s ambition to go for the move.

“He was going for a move. It's the type of corner that curves in and he's obviously trying to clear me before the braking and I think just misjudged it,” the Kiwi explained.

“But we both came out of it, so it was okay, and more importantly, for the team to have two cars seventh and eighth is great today.

“It's the last lap of a race. Honestly, as much as it's the ideal thing to do, there's no way that we're not going to race for a position like that. So I respect that obviously we're lucky that we came out of it, but it's been a great weekend for the team.”

Team principal Alan Permane later said the Racing Bulls had trusted their young drivers to race each other cleanly – though he might have aged a few years watching it unfold.

“They ended up racing each other, which we trusted them to do,” he said with a smile.

Strategy Frustration and a Strong Finish

While the result gave Racing Bulls a much-needed boost – ending three point-less weekends – Hadjar left Brazil with mixed feelings. The rookie was frustrated by a strategy miscue that saw him lose track position to Haas driver Oliver Bearman, who undercut him during the first pitstop phase.

“It's not a good day for me,” Hadjar said candidly. “The strategy on the first stint was not good. We lost a bit of time. We tried to make up for it. But we didn't have an amazing pace for that.

“We had a very good Sunday, points-wise. It helps us for sixth place. But it's not a good day for me.”

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Despite his disappointment, Hadjar’s eighth place and Lawson’s gritty seventh gave Racing Bulls a valuable 10 points – enough to lift the team to 82 points in the constructors’ standings, 10 clear of Aston Martin and 12 ahead of Haas.

After a tense finale and a few heart-stopping moments between their own drivers, the team left São Paulo with both relief and renewed momentum. For Racing Bulls, the message was clear: no risk, no reward.

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