Hamilton was completing a push lap and was coming into the corner at pace while four other cars were on track ahead of him.
While McLaren’s Oscar Piastri veered to the left side of the track to get out of Hamilton’s way, Lawson, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto went single-file on the right side – the Kiwi driver at the back of that train.
Lawson slowed to take the corner just as Hamilton approached it, with the seven-time world champion having to swerve to the right and abort his lap to avoid a collision.
The race stewards assessed the near-incident and neither driver was penalised.
With disaster avoided, the pair completed their sessions; Hamilton was fifth-fastest and Lawson seventh. Mercedes’ George Russell led the session with a lap time of 1m 34.054s.
Lawson got through 25 laps during the session – the final practice of the weekend – taking his total to 69 before qualifying.
Lawson’s best lap of 1m 35.439s was 1.385s off the pace set by Russell, as well as being down on the 1m 33.901s the Racing Bulls driver set on Friday.
Teammate Isack Hadjar was 0.270s ahead of Lawson, with the fourth-best time, while Tsunoda was 18th, 1.228s off the Kiwi and 2.613s off the pace.
Rain overnight left drivers having to complete the first part of the session on intermediate tyres before changing to softs to prepare for qualifying.
That means all 20 drivers have completed their preparation without practising on the hard tyres, which will be used for the majority of the grand prix.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix begins at 5pm on Sunday (NZT).
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
