Lewis Hamilton F1 incident 'waiting to happen' admits team principal Toto Wolff

Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff, Social, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Hamilton F1 incident 'waiting to happen' admits Wolff

Lewis Hamilton was involved in an incident at the Spanish Grand Prix

Kevin McKenna

Monday 24 June 2024 17:03 Updated: 15:58

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff issued a response following an incident involving Lewis Hamilton during FP3 at the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Home hero Carlos Sainz topped the timesheets in the final practice as teams completed their pre-qualifying preparations, but couldn't quite translate this form into success at Sunday's main event.

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Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc rounded off the top three, with defending world champion Max Verstappen going fourth quickest ahead of qualifying.

After what had been a low-key session, it sparked to life in the closing stages.

Having been held up by Norris at Turn 5, Leclerc veered his car into the McLaren driver's tyre, resulting in both drivers being summoned by race stewards, and they weren't the only ones in hot water.

Lewis Hamilton has been backed by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

Lance Stroll was called by race stewards after making contact with Lewis Hamilton

What happened to Hamilton in Barcelona?

The seven-time world champion was involved in a similar incident, coming into contact with Lance Stroll after the Canadian deemed his rival to have hampered his progress, a move which also brought an investigation from race officials.

“This f**king guy thinks he’s alone on the track,” said an incensed Stroll over team radio, before Hamilton apologised for failing to see the Aston Martin star.

Speaking after the event, Wolff admitted he was amazed more incidents like the ones seen in Barcelona are not more commonplace, particularly in qualifying.

"I am amazed we don’t have proper accidents in qualifying, when everybody is flat out, you’ve got to do the lap, our engineers are constantly on the radio saying: ‘be careful’," he told Sky Sports.

Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc also got in each other's way during FP3

"I don’t want to cloud this, but it’s [an accident] waiting to happen."

Addressing Stroll's comments, the Austrian added: "I can understand it in the heat of the moment sometimes, when you’re on your fast lap and being blocked.

"But it’s never the driver’s fault - we’re getting the instructions from the garage about the traffic situation, and nobody does it on purpose because you know you can have a penalty."

Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Toto Wolff Carlos Sainz Spanish Grand Prix