Liam Lawson has admitted that Fernando Alonso "screwed him" in United States Grand Prix qualifying after an incident in the sprint race, but both insist the incident is nothing bigger.
Whilst fighting over P16 in the sprint, Lawson defended robustly from Alonso's Aston Martin, who subsequently branded the Kiwi an "idiot" and wondered if the pressure of his six-race spell at RB was a potential factor.
Post sprint, the two engaged in a debate in parc ferme, as Lawson revealed that Alonso said he would "screw him" in the qualifying session to come, where the two-time world champion was eighth with Lawson already set for a back of the grid start following a complete power unit change.
Despite the spat, both drivers, especially Lawson was keen to play it down.
"He said he would screw me, and I guess he kept his word," Lawson told media including RacingNews365.
"I don't know why he was really upset. I'm not sure why he was when we're racing for P16, I don't know what it is and hopefully he can get over it.
"I understand that he had a pretty horrible race, so I can understand why he was upset, but if I did anything wrong, I would have got a penalty.
"We don't have a rivalry, we just had an incident in a race and hopefully we can get over it and move forward."
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Alonso's reaction
For his part, Alonso felt Lawson's actions in defending were "unnecessary" and revealed what his "biggest surprise" was.
"He fought very hard in my opinion for 16th, 17th but there was nothing we could do," he said.
"Everyone is on track behaving as he wants and for me, it was unnecessary. Everyone can have different opinions and I am okay with that.
"We have 24 races so you will meet somewhere in the journey.
"We nearly crashed on the straight like I did with Lance [Stroll] two years ago, the way he squeezed out of the corners.
"But I don't want to make a big thing. When there is no penalty when someone lifts off in Turns 16 and 17, that was probably the biggest surprise."
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