Hamilton summoned for impeding and yellow flag breach in Jeddah FP3

Lewis Hamilton has been summoned by the stewards for two rule breaches in final Formula 1 practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, putting him at risk of a grid penalty.

Hamilton will meet with the stewards one hour before the start of qualifying at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit over two separate incidents that took place in FP3.

Hamilton was initially summoned for allegedly not respecting double-waved yellow flags 22 minutes into the session.

A second summons was issued by the stewards 20 minutes later for impeding Nikita Mazepin, who was closing on Hamilton at high speed and had to take evasive action.

Hamilton’s hearing is scheduled for 7pm local time in Saudi Arabia.

Any penalty would come as a setback to Hamilton in the F1 title race with two grands prix remaining this season. Hamilton currently sits eight points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.

Title rival Max Verstappen was hit with a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect double-waved yellow flags during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix two weeks ago.

The double-waved yellow flags appear to have been shown for a car going off ahead of Hamilton. At the time of the incident, Hamilton passed both Red Bull cars and Yuki Tsunoda. Hamilton was on a hot lap and went purple through the first sector.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Around the same time, double-waved yellow flags were shown on a flashing light ahead of Sergio Perez, who was behind Hamilton on-track, at Turn 8.

Hamilton’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, passed a single-yellow flag light at the same corner, and informed the team, who told him to abandon the lap.

Hamilton was involved in a couple of incidents during the session where he struggled to get out of the way of approaching cars amid continued concerns about the closing speeds in Jeddah.

The most notable incident involved Haas driver Mazepin, who managed to move to the right-hand side of Hamilton and avoid any contact after reducing his speed.

FIA race director Michael Masi told Haas team manager Mark Lowe during the session that he would “deal with it with the team directly” and that “there was no flags of any form shown through that sector.”