It was a combative drive from Lawson who battled with Perez, Lance Stroll, and Franco Colapinto during the 71-lap affair.

The latter scrap resulted in contact and damage to the RB driver’s front wing, while Stroll proved the cork in the bottle that ultimately denied Lawson points.

With Perez, however, there were two moments.

The first came as they battled over ninth place in the early stages, the Red Bull Racing driver working to recover from a poor qualifying performance.

The second, related to the first, came in the race’s late stages following Lawson’s stop for a new wing.

It was their initial battle, however, that planted the seeds of discontent, with Perez sustaining damage after bouncing over the exit kerb at Turn 5.

That followed his attempts to slither up the inside at Turn 4.

Though pushed wide, Lawson refused to be bullied and aimed his RB at the apex of the following corner, forcing Perez to flinch and leaving the local favourite furious.

“I left him space into [Turn] 4, he was coming in very, very late,” the Kiwi recounted.

“I tried to give him space, he drove me off the track, and then he didn’t give me space into Turn 5.

“It’s unfortunate. It wasn’t my intention.”

Bundled over the kerb, Perez picked up floor damage that effectively ended his race in a competitive sense, and he spent the remaining laps down the order.

It also meant that, as Lawson emerged from the pits with a new front wing, he again encountered Perez – this time as the attacker, flipping him the bird as he cleared the struggling Red Bull Racing entry.

“It’s obviously one of those in-the-moment things,” the Lawson explained of his one-digit wave.

“He spent half the lap blocking me, trying to ruin my race, so I was upset.

“But it’s not an excuse. I shouldn’t have done it and I apologise for that.

“It’s not in my character and I shouldn’t have done it.”

Lawson’s race ultimately unravelled due to strategy, which saw him among the last to stop.

Running seventh when he pitted on Lap 39, he rejoined 17th and was forced to race his way back towards the top 10.

However, he soon found himself stuck behind Stroll’s Aston Martin and, as the leaders closed up to lap the pair, his chances of clearing the Canadian and pushing on evaporated.

Instead, he became vulnerable to the charging Colapinto, who’d pitted nearly 10 laps later than Lawson and enjoyed a strong tyre advantage.

A bold move from the Argentinian stole what was 12th place at the time, Lawson damaging his front wing as the Williams driver swept across to cover him off at Turn 2.

“I tried to give him space in [Turn] 1 and I gave him plenty of space in [Turn] 2,” the New Zealander said.

“He obviously carried a lot of speed in and at that point, when I saw the speed he was carrying, I tried to brake and get out of it.

“I ran out of space and it was just a clumsy incident.

“I don’t really put it on him, I don’t think it was really his fault, it was just an unnecessary incident.”

The result was a lowly 16th place finish in a race that promised points after starting 12th, and which saw retirements from three direct rivals; Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Fernando Alonso.

“The strategy was probably the hardest part of that race,” Lawson admitted.

“We just couldn’t get the clean air to utilise it.

“Once those fast cars got us early on, then we were just stuck in traffic and it was a frustrating race.”