{'I could have killed them' - Lawson encounters near miss with Formula 1 safety personnel
Formula 1 competitor Liam Lawson stated he barely escaped a life-threatening collision during Sunday's F1 event in Mexico when a pair of track officials darted across the track immediately ahead of his car
The concerning event happened on the third circuit when safety workers were spotted on the track as Lawson was returning to the race following an premature pit stop to replace his compromised front wing
Racer's Instant Response
Moments later, the team's competitor Lawson radioed to his team engineer saying: "Are you kidding me? Could you believe what happened? I might have... taken their lives"
"I truly couldn't comprehend what I was observing"
"I came out on a brand new hard tyres, and then I arrived at Turn One and there were just two dudes dashing across the track"
"I nearly hit one of them, honestly, it was extremely hazardous"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Clearly there's been a failure in communication somewhere but This is the first time I've faced that before, and I haven't really seen that in the past. It's completely unacceptable"
"We can't understand how on a ongoing race track marshals can be allowed to just dash across the track in such a way. I'm clueless about the cause, I'm certain we'll get some kind of clarification, but it really can't happen again"
Formal Inquiry in Progress
The sport's regulatory authority, the global motorsport federation, is actively examining the events
"Subsequent to a first corner event, the race directors was advised that debris was present on the track at the turning point of that curve" declared the governing body
"On lap three, safety personnel were alerted and made ready to enter the track and remove the wreckage once the entire field had cleared the area"
"The moment it was realized that Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch personnel were rescinded and a caution signal was displayed in that section"
"The examination is ongoing what transpired following that moment"