LEWIS HITS THE WALL ON DAY 1
WHENEVER there is nothing happening, Lewis Hamilton usually provides the entertainment.
The new era of turbocharged V6 engines began quietly on the first day of this pre-season test with more action in the garages than out on the track.
Then, just before lunchtime, Hamilton’s gleaming Mercedes failed him and he plunged into the tyre wall at the first turn.
It was estimated Hamilton was travelling at 160mph when his machinery disintegrated. ‘Frontwing failure,’ confirmed Mercedes spokesman Bradley Lord, soon after a truck had transported the damaged chassis back to the team’s spanner collection. ‘The cause is being investigated.’
That was unhurt Hamilton’s 18th and inescapably final lap of the day. The #KeepFightingMichael message (above) to Michael Schumacher, who lies in a coma after a skiing accident at the end of last year, was seen no more.
So, to the chagrin of his team, the headline news was Hamilton’s smash, yet their car was the first to run and completed more laps than any rival bar Ferrari, for whom Kimi Raikkonen was quickest.
Only 93 laps were completed. McLaren had an electrical problem and did not turn a wheel while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel managed just three laps as dusk fell, none of them timed, after ‘a silly mistake’ delayed the world champion.