Lewis Hamilton received a caution from the Formula 1 stewards following a perilous close call with Williams’ Logan Sargeant during the second practice session.
Hamilton obstructed Sargeant’s progress during the second practice session, prompting a mandatory review by the stewards.
They attributed the incident to Mercedes for not informing Hamilton about Sargeant’s rapid approach, resulting in a €15,000 fine for the team.
The stewards’ examination included testimony from Hamilton, Sargeant, and team officials, and analysis of various types of evidence such as positioning data, video footage, team radio communications, and in-car video.
Before the stewards’ decision, Sky Sports pundit, Bernie Collins expressed the opinion that Mercedes, rather than Lewis Hamilton, should be held accountable for the incident.
She said: “This is on the pit wall, drivers cannot see far enough in their mirrors, at the speed that they’re going. We’ve heard complaints about how bad these cars are, from a visibility point of view.
“The pit wall needs to be on them, the distance to the car behind, how quickly they’re coming, whether they’re on a fast lap or not. The blame needs to be, in many cases, laid there. In qualifying, amazingly, it gets easier through the sessions. You get less cars on track, they’re on the same run programme.
The Stewards concluded that Hamilton had indeed hindered Sargeant’s progress at Turn 11, forcing Sargeant to veer off the track to avert a potential high-speed collision.
Statement from the Stewards read: “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.”
