Yuki Tsunoda revealed he apologised to Racing Bulls for the comments he made to the media about Liam Lawson.

The pair drove together at the team last year, when it was known as RB. Tsunoda is now at Red Bull and accused Lawson of impeding him during qualifying for the grand prix at the Circuit of the Americas last week.

Tsunoda told his race engineer “Lawson is disturbing me on purpose, like, slowing down like hell in the corners.” After the session he said: “For Lawson it’s always [the] usual story – it’s just [he’s] always do[ing] something on purpose.”

The Red Bull driver also complained about Lawson’s driving in qualifying for the sprint race. However on Thursday in Mexico, Tsunoda revealed he had apologised to his former team.

“I apologised to the team,” he said. “What I said, especially in the media was very unnecessary.”

Tsunoda added he hadn’t discussed the situation with Lawson. The Racing Bulls driver said: “I don’t really know what happened in Austin to be honest.”

“It’s an intense part of the season,” Lawson continued. “For sure, obviously, each weekend’s going to be tough.

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“It’s just incredibly close this year. Each session – especially in qualifying – we’re trying to extract everything. So it’s little things that make a difference.”

The pair have often found themselves in competition for places within Red Bull’s junior team structure and collided on several occasions when they raced each other in junior categories.

At the end of last year Lawson beat Tsunoda to win promotion from Racing Bulls to Red Bull. However after just two rounds the teams swapped the drivers. Neither driver has a confirmed seat for next year in F1.

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