Lewis Hamilton is under investigation by the stewards at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after Lando Norris came close to crashing into the back of the Mercedes during first practice on Friday.
The seven-time world champion is competing in his final race weekend for Mercedes before he makes the switch to Ferrari.
There’s nothing to play for in either championship for Mercedes with Hamilton and Russell locked in seventh and sixth respectively and fourth place wrapped up in the Constructors’ Championship.
In contract, McLaren still have the Constructors’ Championship to wrap up this weekend as they hold a 21-point advantage over Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton will be spoken to by the stewards
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Charles Leclerc set the pace in first practice on Friday, although a battery change in his Ferrari has resulted in a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
But Norris wasn’t far behind Leclerc in terms of pace as his fastest lap was just two-tenths slower.
The McLaren driver was on a hot lap at one stage in the session when he had to slam on the brakes to avoid a slow Hamilton on track.
The 39-year-old appeared to be trying to find a gap on track to start his own hot lap and slowed up before the final corner.
Hamilton was seemingly unaware of a fast-approaching Norris, who locked up one of his tyres while taking evasive action.
The stewards took note of the incident and announced it would be looked into after the session.
Norris reacted to the incident on team radio, simply saying: “Yeah.”
Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson took a closer look at replays after the session and said that Hamilton will likely only receive a warning or a fine.
Lewis Hamilton appeared unaware of a fast approaching Lando Norris
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He said: “Not qualifying, so they look at it in less harsh measures but I do feel like this was a definite case of Lewis being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Hamilton’s on a build-up lap. He’s got a car in front of him and Lewis is looking at the steering wheel, he makes a change there.
“So he is distracted by his own steering wheel. Looking in the mirror, he sees the McLaren coming up and the hand goes up and he quickly goes to the steering wheel to change that switch back to the charge mode.”
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Lewis Hamilton is racing his final weekend with Mercedes
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He added: “The stewards will no doubt look at all of this information as well but from Lando’s point of view, it’s really simply. ‘There was a car in front of me, I was on the racing line, he was on the racing line and I had pretty much nowhere to go’.
“Like I say, they come down on you less harshly in a practice session. It’s usually just a reprimand or maybe a fine but you can also have knock-on effects and you can in these moments have a penalty that sees you through to the race.”