Lewis Hamilton was lucky to avoid a potential serious injury as a result of damage to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari during Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Leclerc has been penalised by the FIA for staying out on the track with a damaged car after a second corner clash with Max Verstappen at Suzuka broke the left front endplate of his car.
The part dragged along the ground for the opening lap before breaking off before Leclerc was pitted, with Ferrari deciding to keep the Monegasque out despite the issue.
When the endplate broke off, it flew through the air and struck Hamilton’s Mercedes, with the Brit chasing Leclerc. The debris smashed Hamilton’s right side mirror and broke it off the car, while other pieces of Leclerc’s Ferrari ended up Lando Norris’ front brake duct.
Things could have been much, much worse for Hamilton, however, as the debris only narrowly avoided striking the centre of his car – and possibly even the driver himself had the endplate not been stopped by the halo.
In fact, Hamilton only avoided a potentially serious injury – similar to the one suffered by Felipe Massa when he was struck in the head by a suspension spring in 2009 – by reacting quickly enough to turn his Mercedes slightly.
Onboard footage from the car shows just how quickly he managed to react to avoid the debris. You can watch the footage below…
Hamilton fumed on team radio after being struck by the endplate.
“How he’s not been given a warning flag I don’t know,” he said. “Lost a wing mirror.”
Leclerc was after the race hit with a 15-second time penalty as punishment for not pitting to replace the damaged front wing.
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The stewards’ statement read: “This piece of wing narrowly avoided an impact in the area of the cockpit of car #44 and destroyed the right-side mirror of car #44.
“After this second piece detached, the team felt the car was now in a safe condition and despite previously telling the race director that the car would be called to the pits, they told car #16 to remain out and not to pit.
“On lap three the race director called the team and directed the car be brought to the pits for inspection.”
Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport