Lewis Hamilton received an formal warning after he almost crashed with Williams’ Logan Sargeant during second practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton got away with merely a warning from the F1 stewards after Carlos Sainz criticized him for driving in a “super dangerous” manner in Saudi Arabian Grand Prix’s FP2.
Hamilton was attempting to let Carlos Sainz pass by driving carefully through turn 11 when Sargeant approached the turn at full qualifying speed prompting the American to take evasive action avoiding a serious incident.
“Mate! Come on!” Sargeant furiously vented over the radio. “It’s too dangerous.”
Sainz echoed his sentiment, saying: “What Hamilton did there was super dangerous. Like he was in the middle.
“I couldn’t get out of the way. Sargeant nearly crashed because of him.”
For his part, Hamilton said: “I didn’t realise someone was on a lap. I was trying to get out of the way for Sainz and all of a sudden there was a Williams there.”
Impeding other drivers may result to a grid penalty in such cases, however, Mercedes was found to be at fault by the stewards for the unfortunate incident.
“Sargeant 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,” the FIA race stewards concluded after reviewing the evidence.
“Having listened to the team radio, it was clear to us that t[Mercedes] failed to warn their driver of the fact that [Sargeant] 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.”
This comes as Mercedes hopes to get back on track this weekend in Jeddah after a lackluster run at the season’s opening race in Bahrain.
Hamilton had a disappointing day overall. He lost his pace, went off course in FP2, and experienced an unsettling loss of power. However, he managed to restart in time for the start of practice.
“It was a difficult day,” the seven-time world champion acknowledged. “I was lacking a little confidence in the rear of the car.
“I had a few big moments out there and on such a high-speed track like this, you need to have full confidence in that. I haven’t quite got that yet.
“The main issue I was struggling with in both FP1 and FP2 was still the rear. We did some work on the set-up from session-to-session and changed the car quite a bit.”
Hamilton ended up finishing a disappointing eighth overall in the final timings in comparison to his Mercedes teammate George Russell, who finished in P2.
“George was clearly in a happier place with the car today,” he added. “We went in slightly different directions so hopefully we can learn from that and find the right solutions.
“We’ll go through the data tonight to see how we can improve.”
