Lewis Hamilton 'lucky' after Ferrari star collides with wall at Azerbaijan GP

Sky F1 pundit Anthony Davidson called his former Mercedes colleague Lewis Hamilton 'lucky' after a near miss at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Heading into turn five during FP1 at the Baku circuit on Friday, Hamilton clipped the wall, damaging his front wing and having to trundle back to the pits to have a new one fitted.

Ferrari changed the seven-time champion's tyres and front wing and sent him back out, where he could only put in a time good enough for 13th during the first session of the weekend.

However, Davidson - who worked with Hamilton at Mercedes as a simulator driver - has said that the Brit was 'very lucky' not to have done severe damage to his SF-25.

Speaking live on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast about an incident for Nyck de Vries in 2023, Davidson said: "It can break a steering arm like it did with De Vries that day, so Hamilton is actually very lucky to survive that one and bring it back to the pits.

"I can see just from the shot we just had that their bringing new tyres to the car, they’re obviously going to change the front wing, but if you see a spike of torque load coming through the steering arm, sometimes those parts have to be quarantined to be analysed in more depth."

Hamilton looking to rebuild confidence

A solid outing last time out for Hamilton at the Italian GP may just have started to give him some confidence following a torrid 2025 season thus far.

Having carried over a penalty from the Dutch GP weekend, Hamilton started the Monza race from 10th, but managed to rise up through the field on Sunday to finish sixth and help to extend Ferrari's advantage over Mercedes in the battle for second in the constructors' championship.

Now, Hamilton needs to piece together another solid weekend, to really give himself and his team hope that they can finish this season off strongly and attack 2026 with new regulations set to provide an opportunity for a comeback.

Hamilton is currently 46 points behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc in the standings, and is yet to have achieved a grand prix podium since joining the Scuderia back in January.

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