{'I could have killed them' - Lawson encounters near miss with F1 safety personnel
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson disclosed he came dangerously close to a potentially deadly accident during Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix when a pair of track officials ran across the track directly in front of him
The concerning event took place on the third rotation when marshals were spotted on the track as Lawson was getting back on the race following an premature pit stop to swap his compromised front wing
Racer's Instant Response
Immediately after, Racing Bulls driver Lawson radioed to his race engineer saying: "Is this for real? Did you witness that? I could have... killed them"
"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was seeing"
"I rejoined with a new set of hards, and then I approached Turn One and unexpectedly appeared two dudes dashing across the track"
"I came close to striking one of them, frankly, it was extremely hazardous"
Track Safety Questioned
"Evidently there's been a communication breakdown 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 active circuit safety personnel can be authorized to just run across the track like that. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm confident we'll get some sort of explanation, but this must never be repeated"
Official Investigation Underway
The sport's regulatory authority, the global motorsport federation, is actively examining 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" declared the regulatory authority
"On lap three, track officials were alerted and made ready to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed"
"Immediately when it was understood that Lawson had entered the pits, the directives to deploy officials were withdrawn and a safety warning flag was displayed in that zone"
"We are still investigating what occurred after that point"
