Lewis Hamilton has been called before the Formula 1 stewards following an alleged impeding of Liam Lawson during second practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was harvesting energy in the final sector at Baku on Friday, while Lawson was on a flying lap in his Racing Bulls.
This left Lawson closing rapidly and forced to take evasive action at the second‑to‑last corner, after which he immediately radioed his team about the incident.
“Oh my god, that is so **** dangerous,” he stated.
“Yeah, agree,” replied his race engineer, Alexandre Iliopoulos.
Both Lawson and Hamilton were summoned to the stewards at 5:30 p.m. local time, and any penalty would likely result in a grid drop for the world champion.
An FIA statement noted: “Alleged breach of Article B4.1.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Regulations – Car 44 (Hamilton) allegedly impeded Car 30 (Lawson) in Turn 19 at 16:33.”
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
The higher closing speeds stem from the 2026 regulations, which place greater emphasis on energy management due to increased reliance on electric power.
However, each car’s battery state varies, and Hamilton highlighted this when questioned about the incident after FP2.
“I’m sure we’ll discuss it in the drivers’ briefing,” said Hamilton. “With the current FIA regulations, there’s no data or simulation to indicate what gap is needed when you arrive at the final corner on full throttle while being 500 bhp down on the car behind. They also don’t specify the closing speed you’ll encounter; I was about four seconds ahead. When I reached the last corner and went to full throttle, I saw him and believed the gap was sufficient, but the car lost power just as I entered Turn 18, erasing the margin—a situation that could affect anyone. Clearer guidelines would help, since no driver wants to incur a penalty or hinder another; we all simply aim to get out of the way and complete our lap.”