FIA stewards investigate Lewis Hamilton after F1 rival blasts Ferrari star

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

FIA stewards investigate Lewis Hamilton after F1 rival blasts Ferrari star

Hamilton in Baku trouble

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Thursday 24 September 2026 18:07 Updated: 18:35

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Lewis Hamilton was subject of an investigation by FIA stewards after infuriating an F1 rival at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hamilton was competing in Thursday's second practice session at the Baku circuit when he got caught up in an incident with Racing Bull's Liam Lawson.

With around 20 minutes of the session left, Hamilton was going slowly coming out of the final corner heading into the long straight. The 41-year-old appeared to be harvesting energy in his car to get optimal battery deployment, but unfortunately did so in front of Lawson.

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As Lawson rapidly caught Hamilton, who was on the racing line, the New Zealander was forced to react quickly to avoid crashing into the back of the seven-time world champion.

On the radio to his team immediately after, Lawson fumed: "Oh my God that is so f***ing dangerous, oh my God dude, that is so f***ing dangerous."

Hamilton spoke after the session appeared to send a warning to the stewards that penalising him would set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the weekend, saying: “I’m waiting to find out what they’re gonna say but I’ll tell you, we’re gonna have interesting discussions if there’s like a penalty from it cause, as I said, it’s Friday and it’s not changed anybody’s weekend.

"We’ll see. Hopefully they’ve understood and hopefully we’ll work together to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

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Liam Lawson was fuming with Lewis Hamilton

FIA stewards make decision on Hamilton

FIA stewards immediately noted the incident before announcing that Hamilton would be officially investigated after the session, requiring him and Lawson to meet with stewards to explain what happened.

If the incident happened during qualifying, Hamilton would have been staring at a grid penalty for blocking. Instead, due to the low consequential nature of the practice session, Hamilton was given a reprimand.

The stewards said: The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), the driver of Car 30 (Liam Lawson), team representatives and reviewed video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.

"Hamilton was on an out lap and Lawson was approaching on a flying lap. Hamilton had been informed twice by his team that Lawson was approaching.

"The Race Director’s Competition Notes require cars on out laps or slow laps to remain on the extreme left from the exit of Turn 16 to the entry of Turn 18, and require Teams and Drivers to manage their gaps before Turn 18 so that they can travel from the apex of Turn 18 to the apex of Turn 19 without impeding a car on a competitive lap.

"Hamilton did not remain on the extreme left between Turns 16 and 18.

"Approaching Turn 19, while Lawson was closing from behind, Hamilton stayed on the racing line which required Lawson to lift and slightly brake.

"The Stewards therefore determined that Hamilton did not follow the traffic-management instructions and unnecessarily impeded Lawson.

"The normal penalty for an impeding infringement during Free Practice is a Warning unless it is dangerous or with intent.

"In this case, there was no intent but given the layout and the high speed corners as well as the specific instructions given by the Race Director, the impeding in the Stewards’ opinion was severe.

"The Stewards also took into account the difficulty to manage the energy deployment from Turn 16 to Turn 19 and the end of the lap.

"Additionally, both drivers mentioned during the hearing that when a driver has no more energy to deploy the difference of speed between the two cars in that specific section is important.

"Taking these circumstances into account, the Stewards impose a Driving Reprimand."

Hamilton had bigger problems following practice, with Ferrari looking well off the pace of title rivals Mercedes in Baku.

The Ferrari star was only fifth fastest after Thursday practice, a couple of tenths down on team-mate Charles Leclerc but a huge 1.3 seconds down on his former Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari FIA Liam Lawson Azerbaijan Grand Prix