{'I could have killed them' - Lawson encounters near miss with F1 marshals
Formula 1 racer Liam Lawson stated he narrowly avoided a life-threatening collision during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when a pair of track officials ran across the track right in his path
The dangerous situation took place on the third circuit when safety workers were observed on the racing surface as Lawson was getting back on the race following an early pitstop to swap his compromised front wing
Competitor's Live Reaction
Moments later, the Formula 1 racer Lawson communicated to his pit wall engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Did you just see that? I nearly... ended their lives"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was seeing"
"I rejoined with a brand new hard tyres, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two individuals sprinting across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was incredibly risky"
Security Issues Highlighted
"Evidently there's been a miscommunication somehow but I've never experienced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's completely unacceptable"
"We can't understand how on a live track safety personnel can be permitted to just dash across the track in such a way. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm confident we'll get some kind of clarification, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Formal Inquiry in Progress
The sport's regulatory authority, the FIA, is actively examining the events
"Following a turn one incident, the race directors was advised that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner" commented the FIA
"During the third lap, marshals were informed and put on alert to go onto the racing surface and recover the debris once all cars had passed"
"Immediately when it was understood that Lawson had made a pit stop, the orders to send personnel were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was shown in that area"
"We are still investigating what occurred subsequent to that time"
