Liam Lawson avoided a penalty for colliding with Pierre Gasly during the Miami Grand Prix after stewards confirmed a gearbox failure in his Racing Bulls car caused the incident. The lap-five crash sent Gasly's Alpine flipping into the barriers, forcing both drivers to retire. Lawson described the mechanical issue as unavoidable.
On lap five of the Miami Grand Prix at Hard Rock Stadium, Pierre Gasly attempted to overtake Liam Lawson into the Turn 17 hairpin. Lawson, braking for the corner, suffered a gearbox failure that left him without gears and unable to stop, clipping Gasly's Alpine and sending it flipping onto the barriers. Both drivers emerged unharmed but retired from the race due to the damage, prompting a post-race stewards' review and a safety car deployment until lap 11. Isack Hadjar also crashed out in a separate lap-six incident after clipping the wall at Turn 14, breaking his front suspension before hitting Turn 15; he had started from the pitlane following a qualifying disqualification for oversized floorboards on his Red Bull car. Hadjar thumped his steering wheel in frustration after the crash. The FIA stewards, reviewing in-car data, telemetry, and radio communications, confirmed the gearbox failure in Lawson's car 30 just before the collision. Their statement read: “We therefore accept the driver’s explanation that this was a failure of a mechanical part in the car and that there was nothing that he could do to avoid the collision... Under the circumstances, the stewards determine that a mechanical failure, not driver error, was the cause of the collision and therefore the driver of Car 30 was not at fault. We therefore took no further action.” Lawson told media: “I just went into the last corner and when I braked lost the gearbox and I went to neutral so I basically had no gears and I couldn't stop... It's a shame because it's taken out Pierre as well.” He noted it was his first such issue with the Racing Bulls F1 car, adding frustration after a strong start that had moved him from 11th to ninth by lap four. Prior to the race, Lawson held 10th in the drivers' standings with 10 points, Gasly ninth with 16, and Hadjar 12th with four.
