New Zealander Liam Lawson has narrowly avoided running over two marshals who crossed the track in front of him during the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Footage emerged from early in the race showing Lawson enter a corner just as the two people entered the track itself metres ahead.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Stunned F1 driver narrowly avoids disaster.
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The 23-year-old was audibly stunned.
“Mate. Oh my god, are you kidding me? Did you just see that? Oh my god, dude” he asked his race engineer.
His engineer replied: “Yep, saw it. Well done to avoid them.”
But Lawson was clearly shaken.
“I could have f***ing killed them, mate,” he said.
The marshals had been collecting debris left around the track from the opening lap and were evidently not aware or warned that Lawson had fallen off the pack because of an early pit stop.
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The Kiwi started 15th but suffered damage in first-lap combat.
He quickly entered the pits to change his front wing but unrepairable damage forced his retirement within minutes.
Meanwhile, Australia’s contender Oscar Piastri suffered a nightmare start as he sought to keep his lead in the championship race.
Piastri dropped from seventh to ninth on the opening lap, leaving him to battle Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda early before chasing Mercedes’ George Russell for the rest of the race.
He finally jumped Russell with a daring move in the late stages but missed out on chasing down Haas’s Ollie Bearman for fourth because of a dramatic late virtual safety car.
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