{'I could have killed them' - Lawson experiences near miss with F1 track officials
Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson disclosed he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal accident during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when two marshals darted across the track right in his path
The concerning event happened on the third circuit when marshals were spotted on the circuit as Lawson was rejoining the race following an premature pit stop to replace his compromised front wing
Driver's Immediate Reaction
Immediately after, Racing Bulls driver Lawson spoke to his race engineer saying: "Is this for real? Did you witness that? I might have... taken their lives"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was observing"
"I came out on a brand new hard tyres, and then I got to Turn One and suddenly there were two individuals sprinting across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, frankly, it was extremely hazardous"
Track Safety Questioned
"Clearly there's been a failure in communication at some point but I've never experienced that before, and I haven't previously witnessed that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"
"We can't understand how on a live track safety personnel can be permitted to just dash across the track in that manner. I don't understand the reason, I'm sure we'll get some form of reasoning, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Governing Body Reviewing
The sport's regulatory authority, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), is thoroughly reviewing the situation
"Subsequent to a first corner event, the race directors was notified that debris was present on the track at the turning point of that curve" commented the governing body
"During the third lap, marshals were notified and put on alert to go onto the racing surface and remove the wreckage once every vehicle had gone by"
"Immediately when it was understood that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded and a double yellow flag was displayed in that area"
"We are still investigating what occurred subsequent to that time"
