Hamilton facing possible penalty ahead of Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton faces a potential grid penalty ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for an incident during final practice.

The seven-time F1 champion has been summoned to see the stewards at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for "not respecting double-waved yellow flags/lights at 17:22 [local time]".

A fortnight ago, Red Bull's Max Verstappen was handed a five-place penalty ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix for the same infringement.

Verstappen was found guilty after Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly had sustained a puncture on his second hot lap in the final session of qualifying, leading to him limping towards the pits, with double-waved yellows shown.

Such an incidence requires a driver to slow down significantly and be prepared to stop, yet Verstappen went on to post his quickest final sector of the session and improve overall on his lap time from his first run.

At this stage, no details have been released regarding Hamilton's incident.

The final hour-long session at the 'fastest street track in F1' proved a problematic one for the Mercedes driver as he finished second to Verstappen after failing to switch on his soft tyres, with his best lap on the hard compound.

Additionally, Hamilton came close to being rear-ended by Haas driver Nikita Mazepin who was forced to cut turn eight as he came up behind the slow-moving Briton.

The Russian found a gap that allowed him to scythe his way through, with Hamilton to his left and a concrete wall to his right, an incident that failed to impress FIA race director Michael Masi.

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