An unseen team-mate controversy played out in Formula 1's midfield at the Austrian Grand Prix, with a team order to hold position ignored.

Liam Lawson - though he finished ahead in the end - was irked after the race by rookie Racing Bulls team-mate Arvid Lindblad attacking him during the second stint against express instructions.

With Racing Bulls in control of the midfield this weekend, Lawson and Lindblad ran ninth and 10th in the initial phase of the race ahead of their planned first pitstops. 

The undercut threat from Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto meant Lindblad was brought into the pits first, and so ended up in an inadvertent position to attack Lawson a lap later as the latter rejoined the race.

Making his way past a yet-to-stop Ollie Bearman on the run to Turn 3, Lindblad ended up clearing Lawson into the braking zone in the same move - before Lawson (who had been told to lift off into Turn 3 "straight away" out of the pits for brakes management) responded emphatically on the run out of the corner with a fairly risky thread-the-needle overtake between the two cars.

This, however, was not the main source of strife. Several corners later, Lindblad was explicitly ordered by race engineer Pierre Hamelin not to overtake Lawson.

PH: We need to hold position. Lift off [for brake temperature management], please.
AL: Why?
PH: Lift-off is critical. Lift-off remains critical.

The following lap, as the instruction to keep up with the lifting-off was maintained, Lawson specifically queried with his race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos whether - given the previous overtake - he would again be at risk of an attack from Lindblad.

LL: Am I going to be attacked?
AI: Negative.
AI: Arvid will hold position, we are not fighting.

This proved inaccurate. Instead, Lindblad picked off Lawson braking into Turn 4 next time by, in a forceful-if-legal move that squeezed Lawson to the outside, and prompted bewilderment from the latter.

LL: Dude. Alex?
AI: I told you what I [myself] was told.
LL: [Later] Last f***ing time I'm listening, man.
LL: [Later still] I lift off 50 metres and I get attacked.

Once the final stint began, Lindblad received another, firmer "hold position" instruction, and showed no sign of flaunting it.

"We had a strategy, and executed it in the first stint, and then we were trying to manage- or I was told to manage brakes, and that I wouldn't be attacked, and then I was," Lawson said after the race.

Asked whether it was something to discuss internally, he acknowledged: "Probably, I would say. Yeah." 

Lawson had complained later in that stint about being "stuck" behind Lindblad. He was then enabled to move back ahead with a one-lap undercut of his own.

When quizzed after the race, Lindblad had no reaction to being informed of Lawson's comments, saying: "OK, in the end, I'm happy with the race, it's double points for the team.

"I gave it a good go at the start of the second stint, and got ahead of him, I was ahead for the whole of the second stint, and then the team boxed him a lap earlier for the last one - so he came out, he undercut me, came out ahead because of the new tyres. 

"I kind of saw that coming, I thought they were going to do that, but that's fine, it doesn't really matter. I had some fun, I got stuck in, I think I did a good race."

He acknowledged the instruction to hold position but, when queried again about Lawson's suggestion, he didn't adhere to the team's plan, said: "We finished P9 and P10, I mean, it worked out pretty well. There was no threat from behind."