Liam Lawson has claimed Fernando Alonso threatened to "screw" him after a scrap during the sprint race for Formula 1's United States Grand Prix.
Lawson managed to irk Alonso while trying to pass the Aston Martin driver during the 19-lap sprint on Saturday morning, the two-time champion feeling Lawson could have caused a collision.
Come qualifying, the New Zealander had his mirrors filled by Alonso coming out of the pits before the Spaniard overtook him into Turn 1, delaying his progress.
“I don’t know, he said he would screw me, and I guess he kept his word,” Lawson said.
“He was really upset, I’m not sure why. We were racing for P16 and I don’t know why he was so upset. Yeah, I don’t know. It is what it is. Hopefully he can get over it and we’ll move forward.
“Just out of the box playing games. It is what it is, it’s part of it - it doesn’t bother me.
“I understand he had a pretty horrible race so I can understand why he’s upset. But if I did anything wrong I’d have got a penalty. So, yeah…”
Asked if he had expected to make a rival out of a two-time world champion on his first F1 outing of the year, Lawson added: “I don’t think we have a rivalry! We just had an incident in the race, and we can just get over it and move forward.”
Alonso would not be moved into discussing what he had said to Lawson after the session but felt their battle had been “unnecessary” given how far down the field they were.
"That is between us,” he said of the conversation.
Alonso had already labelled Lawson an “idiot” over the team radio during the sprint race before passing the RB on track during qualifying later in the day.
Asked by Motorsport.com what happened, two-time world champion Alonso replied: “Qualifying? What happened in qualifying? Ah, well, because I had the scrubbed set, I was not really into a timed lap, so I didn't want to lose more time.
“And I think it didn't change too much to him. But today, in the sprint, we fought very, very hard. He fought very hard, in my opinion, for 16th, 17th. But you know, nothing we can do.
"And you know, as long as one of the two cars lifts off, there is never an accident. So it was my case today.
“Everyone on track is behaving as he wants, and for me, today was unnecessary. You know, everyone can have different opinions. I'm okay with that. It's 24 races, so you meet somewhere in the journey."
Talking about the incident itself, Alonso added: “On the straight, I think we nearly crashed, like I did with Lance [Stroll] two years ago, at 300-something [km/h], and then the way he squeezed, out of the corners, you know, to the track limit itself. You know, in lap one out of 11.
"But as I said, I don't want to make a big thing. There's, of course, no penalty when someone lifts off in 16/17 – that was probably the biggest surprise."
When asked a further question about the situation, Alonso closed it down: "If you want to ask anything about qualifying, okay, you know this thing isn't very important."
Alonso went on to qualify eighth for Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, while Lawson will start from the back of the grid following a penalty for changing engine components on the car he inherited from Ricciardo.
