Lewis Hamilton has received his second reprimand of the 2026 F1 season as the FIA punish the Ferrari driver for an impeding incident with Liam Lawson in FP2 on Thursday, September 24.
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion unintentionally blocked his New Zealand colleague when the Racing Bulls driver was on a fast-lap, whilst the 41-year-old was travelling slowly.
The incident occurred as the 106-time Grand Prix winner moved across the track on the long backstraight between Turn 18 and Turn 19, forcing the 24-year-old Kiwi to jam on the brakes to slow down.
“Oh my God, that is so f**king dangerous,” Lawson said over the radio and the FIA agreed as they quickly noted the incident and announced an investigation at the end of the session.
There, the FIA saw fit to punish Hamilton with a reprimand for the incident in FP2 with Lawson, meaning the British driver has now used up two of his four allocated reprimands.
Each driver receives a maximum of four reprimands per season and securing a fifth will land them a 10-place grid penalty for the following event – but with races running out he should be safe from that.
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Hamilton was noted for a breach of Article B4.1.1 of the FIA F1 Regulations and of Item 27 of the Race Director’s Competition Notes V2.
“HAM was on an out lap and LAW was approaching on a flying lap,” the FIA decision document said. “HAM had been informed twice by his team that LAW was approaching.
“The Race Director’s Competition Notes require cars on out laps or slow laps to remain on the extreme left from the exit of Turn 16 to the entry of Turn 18 and require teams and drivers to manage their gaps before Turn 18.
“So that they can travel from the apex of Turn 18 to the apex of Turn 19 without impeding a car on a competitive lap. HAM did not remain on the extreme left between Turns 16 and 18.
“Approaching Turn 19, while LAW was closing from behind, HAM stayed on the racing line which required LAW to lift and slightly brake. The Stewards therefore determined that HAM did not follow the traffic-management instructions and unnecessarily impeded LAW.
“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.”
Hamilton opens up on tough day for Ferrari
Hamilton had a steady start to the Azerbaijan GP weekend, with Ferrari’s performance in FP1 suggesting the team may have decent speed as he ended the opening session fourth with a 1:45.824.
Although that left him a disappointing 0.437s seconds away from George Russell’s Mercedes, he was close behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his teammate Charles Leclerc and in the hunt for a podium.
But things then took a step back in FP2 as Ferrari’s downforce does not appear to be giving the team an advantage, with the both of the Scuderia drivers slipping to over a second away come the end of the day.
Russell set the pace in FP2 with a 1:43.347 whilst Leclerc was 1.126s behind and Hamilton 1.318s off – and the veteran driver offered a simple assessment on September 24.
“FP1 felt really strong, continuous laps, I thought we were doing pretty well,” Hamilton told said. “And then FP2, for some reason, the others just took another step. And it’s trying to understand…
“We didn’t really change anything on the car, but the others took a step somehow. These tyres are really, really difficult to get to work. You do an out lap and a prep lap, and they still are not in the window, or they still don’t provide you with the grip.
“And when you do an extra lap, all of a sudden they switch on, and all of a sudden you have tons more grip. So that’s a really fine line and really difficult to get working. We’re trying our best, and some teams do it better than others.
“So we’ve got to look into that. I think that’s part of it and then our straight-line speed is not as good as Mercedes. Whether or not we can close that deficit tomorrow is what I will try and work on tonight.”
