Liam Lawson details cause of Red Bull frustration: 'I didn't mean to'

Liam Lawson detailed the cause of a frustrating Italian Grand Prix for the Red Bull driver, revealing an incident with Nico Hulkenberg that he "didn't mean" to happen.

The New Zealander started from the pit lane following a rear-wing change but made contact with Hulkenberg early in the race.

He had made good ground prior to the red flag, with the incident with Hulkenberg occurring after the race restarted.

It broke Lawson's front wing, which forced him to the back by some distance, ground he could not make up due to everyone changing tyres during the red-flag stoppage.

Lawson had to settle for 14th in the end, with him pinning the clash with the Audi driver as the reason for a bad result.

Discussing his race, Lawson told select media, including RacingNews365: "Yep, I had a good first lap from the pit lane and made up quite a few places. 

"Then, at the restart, I lost part of my front wing with Nico. So yeah, I had to box for a new one and lost like 30 seconds. 

"So it's a shame we had very good speed in the race, but with the way the strategy was, obviously nobody really boxed after that, other than the guys that boxed under the VSC. So we just had too much time to make up."

Lawson's apology

It was not just at the first corner following the restart that an incident happened between the pair, as another clash unfolded at Turn 4.

Lawson, unsure exactly what happened, pinned it on him doing exactly what Hulkenberg had done to him at the first corner, but conceded that he did not mean to make contact.

Asked what happened with Hulkenberg, Lawson began explaining: "I was next to him, and he just kept coming over at the entry to Turn 1.

"I wasn't trying to..." The media then interjected and asked about Turn 4. An initially confused Lawson replied: "Probably exactly what he did to me. I probably did it 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 maybe, obviously, he didn't mean to do it to me either. But it broke my front wing, and that's not what you want."