Liam Lawson admitted he was “lucky to survive” a potential first-lap collision, with Kimi Antonelli having slowed to avoid him before hitting Max Verstappen.

Antonelli accepted responsibility for the crash at Turn 3 on the opening lap, which saw him collide with the reigning World Champion, taking both drivers out of the race.

Liam Lawson ‘lucky to survive’ early incident in ‘amazing’ career-best drive

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Lawson was namechecked in the FIA stewards’ verdict around the Antonelli-Verstappen incident, with the Mercedes driver having explained he sought to avoid the Racing Bulls car as he struggled to slow his W16 down.

But as he was able to carry on, the New Zealander was one of only a select few to execute a one-stop strategy around the Red Bull Ring on Sunday, holding Fernando Alonso at arm’s length for a significant proportion of proceedings to claim a career-best sixth at the chequered flag.

Admitting “the car has been very quick, and we haven’t been able to convert,” Lawson said it was a “pretty cool” feeling to secure a top-six finish, though there was a heart-in-mouth moment for him.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com in Austria, Lawson explained his view of the accident and how he “got lucky” in avoiding being tangled up in the incident.

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“I’ve seen it now, and obviously [Antonelli] was trying to avoid [me] as we were slowing down,” he explained.

“Lap 1, in a hairpin like that, everyone backs up a lot and I know, obviously, it wasn’t on purpose, so we were very lucky to survive.

“I mean, I thought I got hit, to be honest. I thought we were probably going to have damage, and the car was fine. So, yeah, got lucky.

“It’s been an incredibly tough year, a very tough year with a lot of potential. I came into F1 and even last year, had a few races, and most of them converted very well.

“Sometimes you can have all the confidence and speed in the world, and they don’t [convert], and it’s felt like that this year.

“To finally have a result is amazing, but we need to obviously keep doing this as well.

“The last couple of weekends, I think Canada, we had really good speed in practice. Barcelona, had good speed in practice, Monaco as well, and the result didn’t convert.

“We’ve been pushing a lot with the car, and especially with our side of the garage. They’ve been doing a lot of work to make me comfortable, and we made some changes this weekend, and they’ve worked really, really well.

“We need to, obviously, keep pushing, but it’s sometimes like that in Formula 1. Sometimes the speed and everything can be there, but there are a lot of variables in this sport, and they’ve worked for us this weekend.”

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