FIA to take 'immediate steps' to prevent repeat of Baku pit-lane hazard

The FIA says it will take "immediate steps" to ensure that the dangerous pit-lane incident and near miss with Esteban Ocon that occurred at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix does not happen again.

A crowed of officials and FIA photographers had assembled in the fast lane of pit road on the final lap of Sunday's race in Baku, oblivious of the fact that  Ocon had yet to undertake a mandatory pit stop after running his entire first stint in the race on the hard tyre.

The Alpine driver thus entered the live pitlane as expected only to find a crowd gathered at its entry. Fortunately, no drama ensued but the group had been carelessly allowed to enter Parc Fermé in advance in order to prepare for the post-race celebrations.

• Read also: Baku stewards summon FIA personnel for pit-lane near miss with Ocon

After the race, the FIA subsequently summoned to Race Control its Parc Fermé representatives for a thorough review of the dangerous situation.

An FIA bulletin read: "The stewards heard from the FIA representatives and determined that the relevant representatives took steps to set up the parc ferme area and also permitted media and other personnel to gather in the start of the pitlane and the pitwall during the last lap of the race, while the pitlane was open and before the final pitstop of Ocon.

"We noted that it was not unusual for the representatives to allow such persons into the pitlane just before the end of the race, in the usual course of preparation for parc ferme and the podium ceremony.

"However, in this case, there was one driver that had to pit in the last lap and this created a very dangerous situation for those that were in the pitlane at the time.

"We considered that it was fortunate that there were no serious consequences on account of what happened today. We stressed that the requirements of ensuring a safe and orderly event are paramount. This was acknowledged by the FIA team.

"We walked through the relevant procedures and protocol with the FIA representatives in detail and required them to take immediate steps to reconsider these procedures and protocols with the relevant stakeholders (including FOM, the teams and the FIA) to ensure that this situation does not occur again.

"The FIA representatives expressed their regret at what happened and assured us that they would do so in time for the next event."

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