FIA surprise as no penalties handed out after Lewis Hamilton FP3 near-miss

Italian Grand Prix

FIA surprise as no penalties handed out after Hamilton FP3 near-miss

Hamilton had to weave onto the grass to avoid an accident

Nicolas Quarles van Ufford

Saturday 5 September 2020 15:40 Updated: 15:52

The FIA has opted to take no further action following an incident in which Lewis Hamilton was forced to take action to avoid a crash at the end of final practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was on a flying lap at Monza to close out a session that minutes earlier had been red-flagged due to Daniel Ricciardo's stranded Renault.

The Briton ran into traffic in the final sector of a flying lap, hurtling down the straight that leads into the Parabolica, but with seven cars going slowly.

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Taking evasive action as Haas' Romain Grosjean pulled out from behind Nicholas Latifi in his Williams, Hamilton went onto the grass to avoid a collision.

Alongside Grosjean and Latifi, Racing Point duo Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, McLaren's Carlos Sainz, AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon for Red Bull were all summoned to the stewards, along with Hamilton.

The stewards, however, were unable to pinpoint who was to blame so opted not to penalise any of the seven.

A statement read: "Having carefully reviewed the evidence, we determine that it is impossible to determine that any driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident.

"Whilst it might be assumed that the first car in the “queue” was predominantly to blame, it was not possible for us to determine how far forward in the queue we should consider and all cars appeared to have complied with the minimum time specified by the Race Director.

"Additionally, this was free practice, not Qualifying Practice, so it was not unreasonable for car 44 to seek to enter the pit lane on what was an out lap, in order to perform a practice start.

"However, the stewards expect that the entire field will respect the Race Director’s instructions and that further, will use best endeavors to remain off the racing line when not at full speed."

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