Proper news from Britain - News from Britain you won’t find anywhere else. Not the tosh the big media force-feed you every day!
Marshals were spotted running across the Turn One run-off area during an early virtual safety car at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday. The incident sparked outrage, with Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz describing it as an ‘absolutely shocking miscommunication’.
This was an unwelcome return to marshal chatter. In Mexico City, two marshals were involved in a terrifying near-miss with Liam Lawson while collecting some debris at Turn One. The Racing Bulls driver was forced to take evasive action after coming out of the pit lane.
In Las Vegas, the incident took place under an early VSC. Marshals were at Turn One collecting debris after collisions involving Gabriel Bortoleto, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly and others when the field came back around to start the next lap. They were spotted darting across the run-off as the cars came into shot.
Looking back at the incident a few laps later, Sky Sports F1 pit reporter Kravitz was wholly unimpressed with the situation. “But an absolutely shocking miscommunication between race control and those marshals on track,” he ranted.
“Absolutely shocking. They’ll have to investigate that later. The marshals further up opposite me in the pit lane could see their colleagues were out and were furiously waving the double yellows. We’re just lucky we escaped any incident.”
Amid the early chaos, multiple drivers picked up penalties. Kimi Antonelli was hit with a five-second time penalty for a start procedure infringement, leaving the Mercedes rookie baffled by the decision.
Alex Albon was investigated for the same issue but was cleared by the stewards, although the Thai-British racer did pick up a five-second time penalty for a collision with Lewis Hamilton. The Williams driver collided with the back of the Ferrari icon in a move that mirrored the seven-time world champion’s collision with Franco Colapinto in Brazil.
The fight at the front dominated the early on-track action. Lando Norris made an aggressive move to cover off World Championship rival Max Verstappen at the start and successfully closed off the avenue of attack.
However, in doing so, Norris took an extremely tight line into Turn One, and despite some hard braking, the series leader went deep into the corner and ran wide. This allowed Verstappen to pass him on the inside, and the Brit lost another position to George Russell.
It took until lap 34 for the Drivers’ Championship leader to reclaim second place from the Mercedes driver, before he set off after Verstappen in P1.