Lewis Hamilton’s first round of his last six races with Mercedes was nothing short of a nightmare. The seven-time world champion has won the joint most races on American soil. However, this time, his performance was in complete shamble. What has already been an emotional season for the Briton seems to be going from bad to worse. Hamilton appears absolutely out of touch post-summer break as he struggles to get in the mix.
In the US GP, the 39-year-old racer was expecting a favorable outcome. The Mercedes team had made several major changes to the lackluster W15, rooting for it to work. However, things went downhill in the qualifying as the seven-time world champion was out in Q1. Despite the setback of starting from 17th place, Hamilton started his Sunday race with an attacking intent, jolting upto the 12th in no time. Sadly, his miraculous run was cut short by an error as he oversteered into the gravel. This unfortunate spin incident ended his race on lap 2, leaving him in despair.
“Im Sorry Guys,” Lewis Hamilton’s Costly Error Ends His Race On Lap 2
Following this heart-breaking incident, Lewis Hamilton interacted with the media. Hamilton explained that th start of the race was phenomenal, as he was feeling good. It was his best start till turn one in a very long time. Then, he gave insight into the unfortunate incident, claiming he wasn’t even trying hard. At the time of the mishap, Hamilton was trying to maintain the tyre temperature. What followed was bizarre behavior from W15; as Hamilton explained, the car began to bounce. Further, he lamented that the left front started bouncing, and then the rear end came around, similar to what happened with George Russell in Qualifying.
Surprisingly, Hamilton’s W15 was running on the Mercedes upgrades, which Russell discarded after a collision during the Saturday session. Therefore, the Briton argued that the upgrade backfired during the weekend. Firstly, his W15 spun during FP1 sessions on turn 3, which, per Hamilton, is extremely rare. Later, Hamilton oversteered on turn 19, a rare occurrence since he has never spun at either turn 3 or turn 19 in all his appearances at COTA. Ultimately, the Ferrari-bound racer perceives the latest Mercedes upgrade as the real issue since Russell’s performance got a boost when he turned to the old spec.
George Russell Feels Upgrade Was Not The Reason Behind Hamilton’s Spin
However, George Russell disagrees with Hamilton’s statement as he doesn’t feel the upgrade is a problem. He explained that though minor changes were made to his car, they were all due to differences in parts. Therefore, the Briton believes there was nothing wrong with the upgrade, but it’s still slightly complicated to comment on the topic.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is focusing on the Mexico GP, the second race of the triple header. The seven-time world champion is glad he will get to rectify his mistakes in four days. Therefore, he will strive to overcome this setback and make the last five races with Mercedes memorable.
