Liam Lawson explains cause of “scary” Pierre Gasly Miami F1 flip

Liam Lawson says a gearbox failure led to the collision that sent Pierre Gasly into a “scary” flip early on in the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was dropped down the order after being forced to take avoiding action of Max Verstappen’s spin at the start of the 57-lap race on Sunday in Miami.

Battling with Racing Bull driver Liam Lawson, the pair collided on the fifth tour at Turn 7, with Gasly’s car flipping in the incident and landing partially on top of the safety barrier.

Lawson, who retired, later explained that a gearbox failure at the moment he was braking for Turn 17 caused the collision.

“I went to brake for the last corner, and when I hit the brakes, we had a gearbox failure,” he told the media, including Crash.net.

“And I went straight to neutral, and I couldn’t downshift to slow the car down.

“It’s a shame, it’s taken out Pierre, which is not good; they were having a good weekend. And it retired us as well.”

Asked if there was any warning about an issue with his gearbox beforehand, he said: “Absolutely zero. It just failed in that moment.”

The stewards have placed the incident under investigation.

Pierre Gasly reacts to “quite scary” crash

Gasly believed at the time the clash was avoidable. However, he spoke to the media before Lawson, and therefore did not know about the Racing Bull driver’s gearbox issue.

“I was luckily fine,” he said.

“It was very, I must say, quite scary because I was up in the air without control and I think I came to the wall rear-end first.

“I didn’t know where I was going to land, so it was not pleasant.”

On avoiding Verstappen’s spin, Gasly added: “It was one of those situations where I made a really good start, and if I had a worse start, I would have got out of lap one in a better position.

“So, it was quite unfortunate, quite unlucky timing.

“I think left Turn 1 seventh, maybe close to sixth, and then I saw him [Max] coming back and I had to hit brakes to avoid him because he was extremely slow.

“And then I just got swallowed by the whole bunch of cars behind me.

“I think we lost five, six positions there.

“I wasn’t too worried because I had the pace of yesterday, I knew that the race would be long and we would come back through the field.

“Right now I’m more disappointed for the team for the missed opportunity.”