F1 stewards make Lewis Hamilton penalty decision after scary Miami GP near miss

06 May 2023 , 22:33

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Lewis Hamilton clipped the wall after swerving to avoid hitting Kevin Magnussen (Image: Sky Sports)

Kevin Magnussen avoided a grid penalty for the Miami Grand Prix despite an incident with Lewis Hamilton in qualifying which saw the Brit hit the wall early in the session.

It occurred during Q1 when both of the drivers were on a slower lap. Traffic was expected to be an issue on track during the session and that proved to be the case, with several examples of drivers struggling to get out of the way of their competitors.

Hamilton was on his way to the pits when he came across Magnussen at the final corner. The Dane was creeping along the track as he prepared to start a flying lap, creating space on the track for himself to have a clean run.

But Hamilton appeared slow to react to the presence of the Haas in front of him. He had to slam on the brakes rather quickly and swerve to the right to avoid hitting the back of Magnussen's car and, as a result, clipped the wall with the front wing of his Mercedes.

Hamilton reached Q2 but was knocked out then, qualifying only 13th. But Magnussen had a remarkable session and qualified fourth on the grid, benefitting from a crash by Charles Leclerc which brought an early end to qualifying.

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Both drivers were called to the stewards' room after the session to explain their respective sides to the story. Both of them were potentially at risk of a penalty for their roles in the near miss but, after they gave evidence, it was decided that no further action was necessary.

A decision document read: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 20 (Kevin Magnussen), the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), team representatives and reviewed video, team radio and in-car video evidence and determined that Car 20 was on a slow lap, with another slow car in front of it.

"Car 44 was on an in-lap and could see Car 20 at the end of the straight. The unexpectedly high speed differential between the two cars resulted in Car 44 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

"Given that neither car was on a fast lap and the fact that Car 20 had another slow car ahead of it, we did not consider either driver to be driving dangerously. Given that they were not on fast laps, there was no question of impeding either. So in the circumstances, we decided to take no further action."

Daniel Moxon