Mazepin was forced to take evasive action when he encountered a slow-running Hamilton in the high-speed fir💖st sector while on a flying lap in the closing stages of the third free practice session in Jeddah on Saturday morning. 

The Haas driver’s lightning-quick reactions through the blind Turn 8 prevented what could have been a huge shunt between the pair at one of the fastest points of F1⛎’s new high-speed street venue. 

Hamilton was handed his second reprimand of the season for the inc𒁃ident, while his Mercedes team picked up a €25,000 fine for failing to keep the seven-time world champion properly informed about Mazepin’s whereabouts. 

Asked if he felt Hamilton had deserved a more severe penalty, Mazepin replied🦩: “I really like Lewis and I really wish him all the best in his title fight. 🅘;

“I wouldn't want him to be penalised for something that was together with me. I'm in my first year in Formula 1, he was probably thinking about how to find a bit of lap time for qualifyiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚng. 

“I🍷f the cost was for me not to complete one of my laps in FP3, so be it.”

Despite th💎e terrifying nature of the incident, Mazepin shrugged ♛it off as being “not a big deal” from his perspective. 

“I was on a fast lap going through Turns 7 and 8, which are flat in our🎶 car,” the Russian added.

“They’re all blind and I 🧸didn't know that there was a car on the racing line. I kept it flat until the moment I saw he was not going to move from it. And it's not a big deal from my side. 

“We train to hav🤪e the reactions necessary to avoid thes💦e kind of situations. Lewis has been very nice and we sent each other texts about that. 

“I just hoped that he had a good qualifying and he🦩 did as always, so that's the main thing.” 

And Mazepin praᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚised Hamilton for being considerate in his response to their close ca✃ll.  

“He ▨♛felt very sorry for what happened and he said it wasn't the best job done from their side,” Mazepin said. 

“It's really nice to see the exp⛄erienced and older generation really paying attention to these things because in F2 you might never get a driver thinking about it. 

“Wherea🦹s in F1 a seven-time world champion is. So that's really it kind of from him.”

Explaining his side of the incident, Hamilton said: “I was told t🔯hat he was 10 seconds behind starting a lap.  

“It’s such a dღifficult track, you have to get the feedback all the way down to when they are four seconds behind or something like that, so you know wh🐲en to get out of the way.

“There was radio silence, s💎o I had no idea where he was an🔜d the next thing I know he’s right behind me.

“In the drivers’ briefing I did say that I think there was the potential for this so we should probably keep 🌟a minimum speed everywhere, like they did for [Turn] 22-27, but they only did it for 22-27. I apologised to Nikita.”