Lewis Hamilton was blasted as ‘f***ing dangerous’ by a furious F1 rival after a near-miss during the second practice session in Saudi Arabia.
Hamilton, who joined Ferrari from Mercedes in a staggering £40million deal ahead of this season, was investigated after an incident on track in Jeddah.
Williams’ Alex Albon was forced to quickly take evasive action after coming across Hamilton’s slow Scuderia while on a hot lap during the early stages of FP2.
He then backed off and vented his frustration over the radio.
The stewards launched an investigation into the flashpoint but opted not to take action against Hamilton – meaning he avoided a potential grid penalty.
Explaining the decision not to punish Hamilton, the stewards noted: ‘However, as agreed with the teams, unless the impeding during free practice was such that it could be regarded as dangerous, there will be no penalty for such impeding.
Lewis Hamilton escaped action despite being labelled as ‘dangerous’ in Saudi Arabia
Hamilton was involved in a near-miss during the second practice session in Jeddah
Alex Albon was forced to take evasive action and vented his frustration over the radio
‘During the hearing, the driver of Car 23 felt that he had the car under control at all times and while he was impeded, he did not consider the situation to be dangerous. He had seen Car 44 in front of him during the corner before.
‘He did not expect Car 44 to be in the position on track he was in and that shocked the driver of Car 23 as he approached Turn 17 and had to take evasive action.
‘While his immediate reaction when the incident occurred was to say that it was dangerous, having looked at it subsequently, he agreed that it was not.
‘We accordingly took no further action.’
Hamilton endured a difficult second practice session and finished 13th. The veteran found himself over six-tenths slower than his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Williams team principal James Vowles said the incident was not ‘intentional’ but warned further examples of blocking are likely to occur this weekend.
‘There’s certain portions of the track, it’s mainly between Turn 5 all the way to Turn 8, where you’re blind, you’re fully loaded on the car, and there’s not a lot you can do anymore,’ Vowles told Sky Sports F1 after the chequered flag.
‘You can lift off, that’s about as much you can do, you certainly can’t brake. And that’s really what caused it.
‘It’s not intentional from Ferrari, but let’s try and be stronger on it because we don’t want an accident.’