Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Liam Lawson’s only point from the British Grand Prix Sprint was left hanging after the Racing Bulls driver was summoned to the stewards for an alleged move under braking while defending from Isack Hadjar at Silverstone.
Lawson finished eighth in the 17-lap Sprint, the final points-paying position, with Hadjar just 0.7 seconds behind in ninth. That on-track result is now under review after the FIA opened an investigation into a late defensive move on the approach to Stowe, where Lawson was alleged to have made an abnormal change of direction as Hadjar closed rapidly along the Hangar Straight.
The incident came at the end of a race in which Lawson had started ninth, worked his way ahead of Hadjar for eighth and then spent the closing stages trying to keep hold of the last available point. Hadjar had fallen back earlier in the Sprint but recovered to put Lawson under pressure as the field approached the finish.
As Hadjar shaped for a run on the inside, Lawson appeared to move late in the braking zone, forcing Hadjar to back out to avoid contact. The near-miss immediately triggered frustration over the radio from the RB driver. Isack Hadjar said over team radio, “Man, that was crazy! Moved under braking so hard!” His race engineer Richard Wood replied, “Yeah, we saw that.”
That exchange became central to the post-race scrutiny, with both drivers called to the stewards at Silverstone to give their account of the fight for eighth. The investigation centers on whether Lawson’s defense crossed the line from hard racing into an illegal change of direction under braking.
Hadjar did not sound desperate to win the point through a penalty, but he made clear he believed the move had gone too far. After the Sprint, Isack Hadjar said, “I’m not going to chase that final point so hard. But I hope the decision they take is sensitive, because that was very aggressive in the car.”
The timing matters because the Sprint was the fourth of the 2026 season and it came before qualifying for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Any time penalty for Lawson would almost certainly drop him behind Hadjar in the classification, handing Hadjar eighth place and the final Sprint point instead.
For Racing Bulls, that leaves a rare point-scoring finish unresolved heading into the rest of the Silverstone weekend. For Hadjar, the stewards’ verdict could still turn a frustrating ninth on the road into a points result before the main Grand Prix grid is decided.