FIA blame Ferrari over Lewis Hamilton incident during Bahrain GP practice as penalty decision reached

Lewis Hamilton has escaped a grid penalty for the Bahrain Grand Prix after the FIA deemed Ferrari to be partially responsible for his impeding of Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto during practice.

Hamilton blocked Bortoleto during the latter's push lap as the cars approached turn 8 in FP2 at Sepang, with the seven-time world champion's Ferrari moving slowly on the racing line.

But he has managed to avoid a sanction, the FIA have stated, due to car damage and Ferrari's failure to follow the correct protocol.

What happened to Lewis Hamilton - and why he won't be penalised

As a result of being impeded, Bortoleto attempted to overtake Hamilton around the outside but ran out of room, meaning he had to swerve and overtake him on the inside instead.

The speeds were such that there was not a risk of a collision, though the incident was enough to rile up Bortoleto.

"What the ---- is this guy doing, man," the Brazilian said over team radio. "He sees me coming and he just keeps blocking."

While the incident could potentially result in a grid penalty for Hamilton in other circumstances, Ferrari presented damage to his right-side mirror - which can clearly be visible on Bortoleto's onboard - as a mitigating factor for the impeding.

Hamilton said he had not been given prior warning that Bortoleto was nearing him at a higher speed, with the FIA deeming that to be sufficient to award him the standard sanction of a warning.

But their remarks on Ferrari's actions were more damning, and it is the Scuderia who have borne the brunt of the overall sanction.

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Ferrari punished over Lewis Hamilton incident

In a document outlining their sanctioning decision, the FIA stewards stated that Ferrari 'should have provided appropriate radio warnings' in regards to faster cars because of the damage to Hamilton's wing mirror. The team have been fined a total of €10,000.

Hamilton's race engineer is currently Carlo Santi, though team principal Frederic Vasseur can also occasionally be heard over the radios of Hamilton and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

"The team was aware that HAM's right-hand mirror was damaged," the FIA statement reads. "As such, the Stewards determine that the Team should have provided appropriate radio warnings of significantly faster approaching cars, irrespective of whether those cars were on a push lap or not.

"The Stewards therefore determine that the Team failed to provide its driver with appropriate information in circumstances where it knew that his ability to observe approaching traffic was materially impaired by the damaged mirror and impose a fine of €10,000 on Scuderia Ferrari HP."

The verdict will come as a relief to Hamilton, and a relatively small price to pay for Ferrari, given their pace in the opening practice sessions in Sepang.

The Malaysian circuit, which has returned to the F1 calendar as a replacement for the Bahrain Grand Prix - though the race will still run under the Bahrain banner - has yielded mixed results for Hamilton in the past.

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He has only won once in 11 races at the circuit - his engine infamously failed while in the race lead in 2016 - but has secured five pole positions.

Leclerc was fastest in second practice amid the threat of rain, setting a fastest lap time of 1:37.528. Hamilton finished fifth with a time of 1:37.833, and was separated from his team-mate by Isack Hadjar, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

The Bahrain Grand Prix itself will get underway at 8am UK time on Sunday morning, with qualifying taking place at 9am on Saturday.