Liam Lawson has revealed how Isack Hadjar apologised to him after their final lap contact in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
With Lawson attempting a one-stop strategy, he was running in seventh, with Hadjar leading a DRS train of chasing cars down to Fernando Alonso in 14th.
Into Turn 1 on the 71st and final lap, Hadjar attempted to muscle past Lawson, but the New Zealander was able to hold position and defeat his team-mate as Racing Bulls scored a big haul of 10 points to further cement its position of sixth in the constructors' championship, leap-frogging Aston Martin.
Reflecting on what happened in Sao Paulo, Lawson described in Las Vegas how Hadjar apologised and how the team had trust in its drivers.
"It was close on the last lap of the race, and basically in the position that I was in, if one of those cars got in front of me, they would have all got me," Lawson told media, including RacingNews365.
"Obviously, I was trying to stay at the front of the queue, trying to keep the clean air, and we touched at Turn 1, and fortunately, nothing came of it.
"He came to apologise to me, it was respectful and the end of the day, and if the roles were reversed, I would have gone for the same kind of overtake as you've got to try and get your wheels in front before Turn 1, and I respected him for apologising for that.
"If we get the call not to race, obviously, it is up to us to respect that call, but we didn't get it, and the team respected us enough not to have a crash.
"But it is high risk in that situation, so hindsight is great. We got away with it in Brazil, but going forward, ideally, we are not in that position again.
"From a team side, how we finished in which order wouldn't have mattered, but at the same time, we're in a team trying to prove a point in Formula 1 and trying to secure being a Formula 1 driver next year as well."
When picked up on that last comment by RacingNews365, Lawson revealed that thoughts about his future were not impacting how he was racing.
"It was not specifically the fact that it was the other car; it was more on a last lap like that, had anybody been overtaking, you're going to race as hard as you can," Lawson added.
"It is nothing specific to the other car, it is more that I am aware in this position that races are important, but I feel like it doesn't change the way I am racing or how we go about each weekend.
"Obviously, the importance, but I don't think it is changing the way I am racing, I think I'd always race like that regardless."
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