A NEW angle has emerged of the shocking moment where two stewards were almost struck by a car at the Mexico Grand Prix on Sunday.
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson was emerging from the pits after having his front wing replaced when he had to brake to avoid the stewards in the middle of the track.
The men were clearing debris from the side of the track when Lawson sped past, narrowly avoiding the second steward by a matter of feet.
The 23-year-old exclaimed over radio: “The f***? Oh my god are you kidding me? Did you just see that?
“Oh my god dude. I could have f***ing killed them mate.”
Fans were not pleased after witnessing the dangerous incident, and argued that this would have been the exact kind of situation that the Virtual Safety Car was introduced to help prevent.
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One viewer commented: “This is incomprehensible. Total madness.”
Another sarcastically added: “Extremely important to call the VSC for Sainz’s spin, instead of avoiding dangerous situations like this! A disgrace!”
While a third fan asked the FIA: “Where was the VSC when you had marshals actually running around the track?”
Lawson was in just as much disbelief about the incident following the race as he was when it first happened.
He added: “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I came out on a new set of hards, and then I got to Turn One and there were just two dudes running across the track.
“I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was so dangerous.
“Obviously there’s been a miscommunication somewhere but I’ve never experienced that before, and I haven’t really seen that in the past. It’s pretty unacceptable.
“We can’t understand how on a live track marshals can be allowed to just run across the track like that. I have no idea why, I’m sure we’ll get some sort of explanation, but it really can’t happen again.”
The FIA released a statement explaining how the stewards ended up in such a dangerous position during the race.
They claimed that Lawson’s sudden exit from the pits and a breakdown in communication combined to make the situation possible.
They said: “Following a turn one incident, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner.
“On lap three, marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed.
“As soon as it became apparent that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded and a double yellow flag was shown in that area.
“We are still investigating what occurred after that point.”
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The situation was not the only controversial decision from the governing body, with Lewis Hamilton fuming after the race about receiving a penalty while rival Max Verstappen got away without repercussions.
The dramatic scenes occurred as Lando Norris cruised to victory to leap to the top of the championship standings with four races left to run.
