Mercedes have been fined by the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix stewards after a near-miss between Lewis Hamilton and Logan Sargeant in second practice.
The team were told to pay €15,000 (£12,812) after committing a “serious failure” while Hamilton has received a formal warning.
Early on in the second practice session in Jeddah, Hamilton had backed off after completing his first flying lap of the session and attempted to allow Carlos Sainz Jnr behind him to overtake him. Hamilton slowed through the fast sequence of turns ten, 11, 12 at the end of the first sector as Sargeant approached behind them.
Sargeant was pushing after abandoning his previous attempt to set a quick time. When he moved to overtake the pair, he had to take to the outside of turn 11 over the outside kerb to avoid colliding with Hamilton.
Sainz, who observed the incident in front of him, reported the incident to Ferrari over team radio. “What Hamilton did there was super-dangerous,” he said.
After speaking to both drivers and teams, the stewards determined Hamilton impeded Sargeant and forced the Williams driver to take evasive action.
“Had that not been done,” the stewards said, “there would have been a serious, high-speed crash.”
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The stewards said Mercedes “failed to warn their driver of the fact car two [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.”
Unlike reprimands, warnings do not accumulate over the course of the season, so Hamilton is not at risk of incurring a penalty if he collects more of them.
Mercedes’ €15,000 fine is less than they received for another near-miss involving Hamilton at the same circuit three years ago. The stewards fined the team €25,000 on that occasion and reprimanded Hamilton after Haas driver Nikita Mazepin was forced to avoid his Mercedes at turn eight.
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2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
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