The FIA stewards have fined Ferrari €10,000 (£8,500) and given Lewis Hamilton a formal warning after he impeded Gabriel Bortoleto during a practice session.

Hamilton explained to the stewards that his right-hand wing mirror had been broken at the time of the incident, and the panel accepted this as a mitigating factor. However, they also found that Ferrari had failed to alert Hamilton over the radio that Bortoleto was closing in on him.

According to the stewards, Hamilton was travelling slowly at around 80-85 kph as he approached turn nine, while Bortoleto, who was on an out lap rather than a push lap, came up behind him at roughly 240 kph. That produced a closing speed of between 155 and 160 kph. As the two cars neared the end of the straight, Hamilton moved from the middle of the track towards the racing line, forcing Bortoleto to brake sharply and take evasive action to avoid contact.

The stewards confirmed, based on photographic and video evidence, that Hamilton's mirror damage was genuine and that he had not received any radio warning from his team. Representatives from Ferrari told the stewards that such warnings are typically not given when an approaching car isn't on a push lap. Bortoleto himself said he had remained in control of the situation throughout.

Despite this, the stewards concluded that Hamilton had unnecessarily impeded the much faster car by drifting onto the racing line at low speed, regardless of whether Bortoleto was pushing or not. They also weighed up whether the incident constituted dangerous impeding, pointing to the high closing speed and the fact that a driver aware of a damaged mirror should take extra care before moving across the track. Because Bortoleto managed to stay in control and avoid a collision, the stewards settled on the standard practice-session penalty for impeding, a warning, after balancing the mitigating factors against the speed differential and the evasive action required.

Turning to Ferrari's responsibility, the stewards noted the team knew about the mirror damage and therefore should have warned Hamilton about faster cars approaching, whether or not those cars were on push laps. Having failed to give him that information despite knowing his awareness of traffic was compromised, the team was fined €10,000.

The incident occurred during practice for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Source: RaceFans

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