Liam Lawson was forced to take evasive action during FP2 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Image: Fox Sports
Hamilton was on an out-lap in his Ferrari when the Racing Bulls driver approached at high speed.
Lawson was forced to take evasive action when the preceding Hamilton failed to move off the racing line between Turn 16 and 18.
The race director’s competition notes require drivers not on a flying lap to remain on the extreme left from the exit of Turn 16 to the entry of Turn 18.
The seven-time F1 champion was warned twice of the approaching car but failed to move off the racing line.
Lawson radioed to his team, “That is so f***ing dangerous. Oh my god. Dude, that is so dangerous.”
Hamilton was summoned by the stewards and given a reprimand for the incident.
“The normal penalty for an impeding infringement during free practice is a warning unless it is dangerous or with intent,” the stewards said in their report.
“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.”
Liam Lawson vents his frustration during FP2 😤#F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/w83NBIuB5K
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 24, 2026
Hamilton explained the act was not intentional and a symptom of the new-for-2026 regulations.
“I was just with Liam. Naturally, it’s never an intention I think from any driver to get in the way,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“Basically, with the way the rules are set… when you come around the last corner to start your lap, you have no K, so you have no battery deployment.
“You just have the ICE (internal combustion engine) basically. So something like 500hp less.
“There’s no guidelines also of how big a gap you have to understand the closing speed that you’re going to have with a guy that’s on their [flying] lap.
“I was four seconds ahead. I was like ‘this looks big enough’. I got on the power and then once I got into [Turn] 18 the speed deficit was huge and there was nowhere I could go at that point.
“So, unfortunate, but it gives us good guidelines as to what to change potentially for tomorrow.
“But that’s not the driver’s fault. That’s what the FIA did on the decisions at the beginning of the year.
“We’re trying to manage the best we can as drivers on track in finding the right gap and not getting in the way of people.”
Lawson sympathised with Hamilton, echoing his sentiment about the controversial regulations.
“It’s unfortunately the way the regulations are,” said Lawson.
“It’s quite sketchy for either one of us. To be honest, there’s not a lot that you can do when you look at it.
“Lewis is full throttle, got two, three seconds to me, which is normally plenty, but the speed difference is so big.
“He’s not deploying anything, I’m deploying everything and you have 60 to 80 km/h speed difference, which is bad.
“If he gets out of the way before, slows down and then there’s another car behind me, then the speed difference is enormous.
“Once you come out of that corner and you’re committed, there’s nothing that you can do.”
Lawson finds early pace on Racing Bulls return
Hamilton said the moment would be discussed in the drivers briefing.
He explained one of the proposals included allowing drivers maximum power coming out of Turn 18 and 19 and then resets out of Turn 19.
“There are tracks where you’re not allowed to go slow in a certain section, and they should just give us power through that section,’ Hamilton explained.
“Even if you’re on a slow lap, you have to go full gas and you have maximum power through [Turns] 18 ad 19 and you’ll never be in anyone’s way.
“We’ll talk about it in driver’s briefing and hopefully we come to some sort of conclusion.”
Free Practice 3 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix gets underway at 6:00pm AEST.