Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Bahrain, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton dramatically avoids horror F1 crash after rival's 'crazy 'driving

Seven-time champion Hamilton was involved in a near-miss at the Australian Grand Prix

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Friday 6 March 2026 06:20 Updated: 06:44

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton was involved in a nail-biting near-miss during the second practice session at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton enjoyed a positive return to the track with Ferrari earlier on Friday when he managed to finish P2 in the first practice session of the new season, just one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc who topped the timesheets.

But the 41-year-old found himself having to whip out his lightning fast reflexes to avoid an incident with the Alpine of Franco Colapinto during the second session of the day.

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With 55 minutes to go in FP2, Hamilton was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision with the Argentine racer who was moving extremely slowly and had failed to move out the way of oncoming cars.

Having swerved to avoid the Alpine, Hamilton took to team radio, saying: "There was a car going crazy slow on the pit straight."

Colapinto was noted for the incident and will be investigated by the FIA stewards after the session.

Colapinto to be investigated after 'dangerously slow' driving

Upon watching the incident back from the POV of Hamilton's onboard camera, Sky Sports F1 analyst and former driver Anthony Davidson couldn't restrain his shock, exclaiming 'oh!' after taking a closer look at what happened out on track.

As Colapinto's A526 car continued to trundle along the Melbourne circuit, Davidson and commentator David Croft discussed whether the Alpine driver could have done anything differently, with Crofty saying: "Am I right in thinking Franco could have done himself and everyone else a favour by moving over to the right?"

Davidson agreed, pointing out that incident's like this are the precise reason why the flashing rain lights exist on the back of the new cars.

The Sky pundit later added: "When you're going that slowly, as Hamilton said, dangerously slow, even if you're crawling, just a quick look in the mirror, there would have been an opportunity at some point just to swing it to the right hand side."

Croft then responded: "Well he looked in his mirrors... and then didn't move."

Luckily Hamilton managed to bounce back from the close call, going fastest with a 1:20.903 five minutes later, pipping former team-mate and 2026 title favourite George Russell to the top of the timesheets by just 0.081s.

Ferrari Alpine Australian Grand Prix Melbourne Albert Park Circuit