D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on Liam Lawson's controversial exchange with Sergio Perez at the Mexican Grand Prix

Kiwi F1 driver Liam Lawson has apologised for flipping the bird at Sergio Perez during the Mexican Grand Prix.

Lawson and Perez got into a wheel-to-wheel battle on the 19th lap - that quickly turned heated.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave unpacks the controversy here today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darcy Watergrave Sports Talk Coasters at the BA does hello
back from the weekend. You have a good one, absolutely huge,
so much fun. In fact, some of it I didn't
even watch any sport.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Sport is fun for the rest of us, but to you,
it's worked. No, it's a huge amount of fun. I
enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
But I was invited to a barbecue from some old friends.
So I took my daughter up to the barbecue and
she played with all of her friends who go to
the same high school, and we sat.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Around and enjoyed company.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I have two beers so I could drive home and
then I drive home and turn the sport back on again.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh yeah, straight back into it. Did you watch Liam Lawson?
Did you see him? I watched everything. I couldn't help myself.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, yeah, I was quite surprised by that. I didn't
from what I know of Liam Lawson strike me as
something he generally.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Normally seems like a very chill do.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I think what you've got is a situation when he
gets on the race track, it's that white line fever.
He is a very aggressive race and we've seen that
from his early days, and he's running much smaller categories
that when he's out there, he will not take a
backward step.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
He's not dangerous, he's not nasty.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
In fact, in that Formula One race there were times
yet to get out of the way of other people
because he wasn't racing them, so moved away and let
him carry on. He's not stupid. But when it comes
to a Yuki snowder and poor old checho Sergio Perez.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Of course he didn't fight with them. That's what you
do in modus wal. You fight with him. Was Perez
and the wrong? You know? I think they had a
wee bit of it in both and see. But it's
so that the.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Rulings now around when you can and can't pass at
what apex are very confusing. But I think what we've
got here is that we've got a guy who's on
the way out and he's very angry about it. And
he've got a guy on the way out and the
way in who will not take him.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Back with him. So Perez knows he's on the way out.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Theresa has got two lost springs in the entire and
the same car as Maxfest happened, and he's not performed,
and he was at home, he was in Mexico. He
started the race right at the back and then he
started beyond the white line.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
That you put your front wheels on. So each he's
under a huge pressure.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
He's not responding very well at all, and so there
was a niggle between them, like I wouldn't have flipped
the bird.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
But it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
No how you get respect in the race track and
these guys saying, oh, you know, you need to respect
your elders.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
You need no, no, no, no. How do you get
respect from your racing?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You win?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's how you get respect. He's not thirty's not cheating?
Am I right to that point?

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Am I right in thinking Perez came in last and
Liam Lawson second to last?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Seventeen? Yeah? Does that count against Lim Lawson because he's
got to prove himself.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
No, because in qualifying out did him. And the problem
with Liam that he's got it right. But three laps
to go, I think it was Colopino. He actually hit
Colopento trying to turn it on and he took his
front wing off, so we had to go to the
pit lane and come back again.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
But up until then, fantastic. I think you look at what.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
He's doing up against Yuki Smoda, who's the other guy
in the racing ball team, is vying for that other seat.
Yuki was going pretty fast and qualifying and then he
put it into a wall, which right at the very
end of qualifying ruined his qualifying rate, then ruined Lean
Lawson's qualifying rape. And then the first thing that he
did when the race started he crashed into a wall.
So he ended qualifying in a wall. He started the

(03:10):
race in a war, which is not He's under a
lot of pressure as well, and I think that Liam
Lawson is responding to the pressure. But we'll see how
it goes to the consecutive race when we're at the
beautiful Interlagos coming up this weekend.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Brilliant Darcy, thank you very much, appreciate it, looking forward
to your show. That's Darcy Watergrove Sports Real Crostier back
at seven for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
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