Lewis Hamilton has been reprimanded by Formula 1 stewards after allegedly impeding Liam Lawson during second practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver was harvesting energy through the final sector in Baku on Friday, while Lawson was on a hot lap in his Racing Bulls. That meant the New Zealander closed quickly and was forced to take evasive action at the penultimate corner. Lawson then went straight on team radio to complain. "Oh my god, that is so **** dangerous," he said. His race engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos replied, "Yeah, agree."
Hamilton and Lawson were summoned to the stewards at 5:30pm local time. If a penalty is given, it is likely to be a grid drop for the world champion.
A stewards' report read: "HAM was on an out lap and LAW was approaching on a flying lap. HAM had been informed twice by his team that LAW was approaching. The Race Director’s Competition Notes require cars on out laps or slow laps to remain on the extreme left from the exit of Turn 16 to the entry of Turn 18, and require Teams and Drivers to manage their gaps before Turn 18 so that they can travel from the apex of Turn 18 to the apex of Turn 19 without impeding a car on a competitive lap. HAM did not remain on the extreme left between Turns 16 and 18. Approaching Turn 19, while LAW was closing from behind, HAM stayed on the racing line which required LAW to lift and slightly brake. The Stewards therefore determined that HAM did not follow the traffic-management instructions and unnecessarily impeded LAW. The normal penalty for an impeding infringement during Free Practice is a Warning unless it is dangerous or with intent. In this case, there was no intent but given the layout and the high-speed corners as well as the specific instructions given by the Race Director, the impeding in the Stewards’ opinion was severe. The Stewards also took into account the difficulty to manage the energy deployment from Turn 16 to Turn 19 and the end of the lap. Additionally, both drivers mentioned during the hearing that when a driver has no more energy to deploy the difference of speed between the two cars in that specific section is important."
The increased closing speeds are a direct result of the new-for-2026 regulations, where managing energy is key due to the increased reliance on electric power. Each car has a different state of battery. Hamilton pointed this out after FP2. "I'm sure we're going to talk about it in the drivers' briefing," said the Briton. "With the rules that the FIA gave us this year, when you come into the weekend, there's no data or simulations to say, 'okay, when you come to the last corner and you go to full throttle and you have 500bhp less than the car behind you on the lap, this is the gap you need to have. They don't tell you the closing speed that you're going to have. I was four seconds ahead, basically. When it's the last corner pushing, I could see him, I thought the gap was enough, I got to full throttle. Literally as I got into [Turn] 18, the car just died. Swamped up the gap massively and that could happen to anyone."
Source: www.motorsport.com — Read the original article
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