Liam Lawson has revealed to apologising to Max Verstappen after the pair collided during second practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The two drivers made contact at Turn 14, with Verstappen's Red Bull and Lawson's Racing Bulls machinery both suffering damage. The incident triggered a red flag and left both drivers with one-place grid penalties for Sunday's race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The clash came as a surprise given the relationship between the two, with Verstappen having previously backed Lawson internally during his time in the Red Bull setup.
Lawson made clear he had gone to clear the air with the four-time F1 champion before Saturday's running.
"It's not ideal," said Lawson. "I went to see Max to apologise because what happened doesn't need to happen.
"I don't want to have that happen in the future. Obviously, right now, it's not the best time, so yeah, it's been a tricky day, honestly.
"But I'm happy to drive the car. At the moment, I just like driving the car."
Despite qualifying eighth fastest, and dropping a place to ninth because of the penalty, the day ended even more sourly for Lawson, however, after being disqualified from qualifying for a technical breach.
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Button weighs in on Lawson future
The clash has come at a sensitive moment for Lawson, with his Racing Bulls future still unresolved.
Junior driver Nikola Tsolov, who sits second in the F2 standings, took over Lawson's car in first practice in Mexico as part of the team's evaluation process.
Jenson Button, the 2009 F1 champion, has made it clear where his sympathies lie, pointing to Lawson's season-long consistency over the promise Tsolov has shown.
"It's such a difficult one for the team to call," said Button. "They obviously have the junior Tsolov coming through in F2, second in the championship, doing an amazing job.
"But he's also had inconsistencies through his years. He's had moments of brilliance, but then he's had other races where it's not quite been there for him.
"Maybe the team are excited about getting young new talent in the team, but I think Liam's job this year has been really good. He's been very consistent.
"They know what they're getting with Liam, whereas with Tsolov, they don't. So maybe they're excited about that. I don't know.
"But if they're there to score points at the moment, I would say Liam's your guy."
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