Liam Lawson narrowly avoided a serious accident during Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix after two track marshals ran across the circuit in front of him early in the race. The incident took place on lap three, just as the Racing Bulls driver rejoined the track following a front-wing change. Stunned by the close call, Lawson immediately radioed his team: “Are you kidding me? Did you just see that? I could have... killed them.”
After the race, the driver from New Zealand called the moment unbelievable and demanded accountability. “I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing. I came out on a new set of hards tyres, 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.”
Lawson added that there can be no repeat of such lapses. “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.”
FIA statement on Liam Lawson epsiode
The FIA acknowledged the incident and confirmed that race control had acted according to procedure but said that further review was underway. “Following a Turn 1 incident, Race Control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner,” the body said. “On lap 3, Marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed Turn 1.”
Officials noted that the call for marshals to abort the clean-up came just before Lawson’s car reached the area. Lawson retired several laps later, recording his fifth non-finish of the season. Three other drivers also failed to complete the race in Mexico City.
Lando Norris went on to win the Mexico City Grand Prix and become the new Drivers’ Championship leader by just one point. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took second spot, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third
