Lewis Hamilton confirms driver talks after scary near-miss

Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he will raise a scary closing-speed incident involving Liam Lawson with fellow drivers at the next briefing, after the pair were involved in a near-miss during second practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver was on a slow lap approaching the final sector at Baku when Lawson, driving for Racing Bulls, closed up on him dramatically faster than expected as he began his own flying lap.

Hamilton said he believed he had left sufficient margin before the incident occurred, but the gap evaporated once his Ferrari's power dropped off entering Turn 18. The moment saw the veteran receive a reprimand, following a stewards investigation.

Hamilton finished fifth in second practice, with George Russell topping the times ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen. Lawson ended the session down in 12th.

Asked whether he was concerned about closing speeds in qualifying following the incident, Hamilton told reporters after the session that the topic will be discussed by the drivers.

"Yeah, we debated it, and I'm sure we're going to talk about it in the drivers' briefing," he said.

"Basically, with the rules that the FIA gave us this year, when you come into the weekend, there's no data or simulations to say, okay, when you come to the last corner and you go to full throttle and you have 500 brake horsepower less than the car behind you on the lap, this is the gap you need to have before they get on your [rear]."

"They don't tell you the closing speed that you're going to have, and I was four seconds ahead basically. I went into the last corner pushing. I could see him, but I thought the gap was enough. I got into full throttle, and then literally as we got into Turn 18, it's like the car just died, and he swamped up the gap massively."

"And that could happen to anyone. So I think it's having clearer guidelines from them, because none of the drivers want to get in trouble. None of them are trying to get in the way of anybody."

Lewis Hamilton proposes guidelines solution

Hamilton has already put forward a possible solution to the FIA, aimed at removing the huge power differential between cars on push laps and those cruising through the final sector.

His suggestion centres on Turns 18 and 19, the final corners before the pit straight at Baku, where the disparity between a car deploying full hybrid power and one conserving energy on an out-lap or slow lap becomes most dangerous.

"Like, that's our sole goal, is to get out the way and then also get our lap, and so I think we'll talk about in the drivers' briefing about what we could do," Hamilton added.

"I mean, I said to them what they should do is, on a single lap, when we're doing a push lap, we get max power out the last corner. When you come through Turn 19, it resets, and then you have more power, a little bit more power in there."

"And there should just be nobody going slow ever through Turns 18 and 19. So you should just, even if you're on a slow lap, still have to go flat out through Turns 18 and 19 with full power, and that would mean that no one's ever going slow through that section."

"I think that's something we'll talk about."