Lewis Hamilton has escaped a penalty but his Mercedes Formula 1 team has been fined for impeding Logan Sargeant’s Williams during practice in Saudi Arabia.
Sargeant was embarking upon a push lap in a twilight FP2 session at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit when he encountered Hamilton dawdling along through Turn 10.
The Williams driver had to straddle the kerbs to avoid making high-speed contact with the seven-time F1 champion, labelling the near-miss as “dangerous” on the radio.
Both drivers were called to the stewards after the session, where Mercedes was slapped with a €15,000 fine for failing to inform Hamilton of Sargeant’s approach.
“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), the driver of Car 2 (Logan Sargeant), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, team radio and in-car video evidence and determine that Car 44 impeded Car 2 at Turn 11,” the stewards’ verdict read.
“As a result, Car 2 had to take evasive action by going off the track to avoid a collision. Had that not been done, there would have been a serious, high-speed crash.
“Having listened to the team radio, it was clear to us that the team of Car 44 failed to warn their driver of the fact that Car 2 was arriving on a fast lap.
“That was a serious failure on the part of the team, particularly given the speeds on this circuit and the nature of Turn 11, which is at the end of a series of high-speed corners where driver visibility is impaired. We therefore issue a warning to the driver and impose a fine of €15,000 to the team.”
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