Hamilton warned and Ferrari fined after practice incident

Lewis Hamilton was warned for impeding Gabriel Bortoleto during practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, held in Malaysia. Ferrari, meanwhile, received a €10,000 fine. The incident took place in the second free practice session at Sepang: Hamilton moved onto Bortoleto’s line on the approach to Turn 9 while his right-hand mirror was damaged. The closing speed between the cars exceeded 150 km/h, and the Brazilian driver had to move aside to avoid Hamilton.

The stewards found that Hamilton had impeded Bortoleto by moving slowly onto the racing line ahead of a much faster approaching car. They concluded that Bortoleto not being on a push lap did not change their decision. They also considered the closing speed and Hamilton’s damaged mirror, while noting that Bortoleto remained in control and was able to avoid him.

In their decision, the stewards said photographic and video evidence confirmed the mirror damage and that Hamilton had received no radio warning from his team. They also treated the damaged mirror and Bortoleto not being on a push lap as mitigating circumstances, weighing them against the speed difference and the manoeuvre that forced the Brazilian to take evasive action. Representatives of both teams also said warnings are not normally issued when the approaching car is not on a push lap.

Ferrari’s financial penalty was for failing to warn Hamilton. The stewards stressed that the team had a responsibility to take extra care in alerting its driver to traffic given the damage to his mirror.

Hamilton finished Friday’s FP3 session fifth. His team-mate Charles Leclerc set the benchmark ahead of Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris. Fred Vasseur called the day “at least OK”, while pointing to track evolution and tyre degradation as factors for the rest of the weekend.