Formula 1 star Liam Lawson was left outraged after nearly running over two marshals at high-speed during the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Lando Norris claimed an impressive victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday to take the lead of the drivers’ championship with just four grand prix to go.
The Brit leads his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by a single point, with reigning champion Max Verstappen only 36 points behind.
It was a race packed with drama from start to end, but there was a particularly shocking moment early on that was missed by the live broadcast.
During the chaos of the opening lap, Racing Bulls driver Lawson made contact with Carlos Sainz’s Williams, badly damaging his front wing and forcing him to pit for a new one, dropping him far behind the pack.
However, after speeding out of the pit-lane the Kiwi turned into the first corner, only to find two marshals running across the track, recovering the debris from the opening lap collisions.
Thankfully, yellow flags were being waved to alert Lawson to slow down but he was still travelling a relatively high speed and only narrowly avoided crashing into the two men.
‘What the f***, oh my god, are you kidding me? Did you just see that? Oh my god,’ a terrified Lawson said over the team radio.
His race engineer, Ernesto Desiderio, replied: ‘Yep, saw it. Well done for avoiding them,’ before the driver added: ‘I could have f****** killed them, mate.’
It would appear the marshals ventured onto the circuit at that point thinking all 20 cars had already gone past, not realising that Lawson had pitted.
Lawson, who began the season as Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate but was axed after just two races, retired from the race after just five laps, the damage to his Racing Bulls car ultimately proving to be catastrophic.
Speaking to reporters afterward, the 24-year-old was still fuming over the near-miss, saying: ‘I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
‘[I] came out on a new set of hards [tyres], and then I got to Turn One and there were just two dudes running across the track. I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was so dangerous.
‘Obviously, there’s been a miscommunication somewhere, but I’ve never experienced that before, and I haven’t really seen that in the past. It’s pretty unacceptable.
‘We can’t understand how, on a live track, marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that. I have no idea why, I’m sure we’ll get some sort of explanation, but it really can’t happen again.’
Shortly after the race, the FIA, F1’s governing body, issued the following statement: ‘Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner.
‘On Lap 3, Marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed Turn 1. As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area.
‘We are still investigating what occurred after that point.
‘We would like to underline our respect and appreciation for the local ASN, OMDAI, as well as the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and their marshals, who are volunteers and play a vital role in the safe and successful running of our sport. Their professionalism and dedication are invaluable to every event we stage.’
The F1 season continues with the Brazilian Grand Prix on November 7-9.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.