{'I could have killed them' - Lawson faces near miss with Formula 1 marshals
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson stated he narrowly avoided a potentially deadly accident during Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix when a pair of track officials darted across the track directly in front of him
The dangerous situation occurred on the third rotation when safety workers were observed on the circuit as Lawson was rejoining the race following an quick visit to the pits to swap his compromised front wing
Driver's Immediate Reaction
Immediately after, Racing Bulls driver Lawson spoke to his race engineer saying: "You've got to be joking? Could you believe what happened? I might have... taken their lives"
"I genuinely couldn't process what I was seeing"
"I came out on a fresh hard compound tires, and then I approached Turn One and there were just two dudes running across the track"
"I almost collided with one of them, truthfully, it was incredibly risky"
Safety Concerns Raised
"Obviously there's been a communication breakdown at some point but I've never encountered that before, and I haven't previously witnessed that in the past. It's absolutely inexcusable"
"We can't understand how on a ongoing race track safety personnel can be allowed to just dash across the track like that. I don't understand the reason, I'm certain we'll get some kind of clarification, but this absolutely cannot recur"
Official Investigation Underway
F1's overseeing organization, the global motorsport federation, is thoroughly reviewing the circumstances
"After an occurrence at turn one, track officials was informed that debris was present on the track at the critical section of that bend" commented the regulatory authority
"During the third lap, safety personnel were informed and put on alert to go onto the racing surface and clear the fragments once the entire field had cleared the area"
"The moment it was realized that Lawson had made a pit stop, the instructions to dispatch officials were canceled and a double yellow flag was shown in that section"
"We are still investigating what transpired subsequent to that time"
