Up Next
Lewis Hamilton was summoned to the Formula 1 stewards ahead of Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying over both an alleged yellow-flag offence and impeding Nikita Mazepin.
The world championship contender was initially called up to assess whether he failed to respect double waved yellows 22 minutes into the final practice session in Jeddah.
No action was taken in that instance, with the stewards determining that the yellow flag panel Hamilton passed was activated “accidentally” and “for less than one second”.
But a decision is still awaited over the other summons.
Hamilton had an eventful practice three in which he locked up and went off course at Turn 1 and had to spin turn to rejoin, then later had near-misses with both Pierre Gasly and Mazepin – the latter at very high speed – when on a slow lap.
The Mazepin incident was added in a second stewards’ summons issued just under half an hour after the first.
Contact between the Haas and Mercedes was only narrowly avoided as both jinked away at the last moment in the fast and blind Turn 8 section.
While Hamilton told his team he needed more notice of the fast-approaching Mazepin, when Haas raised the incident with race director Michael Masi he replied that he would discuss it with both Mercedes and the track officials, as he felt marshals hadn’t been providing adequate signalling to either car.
Hamilton was second-fastest to title rival Max Verstappen in the session having set the Friday pace.
The stewards’ hearing took place at 7pm local time, an hour before qualifying, to consider both offences at once.
