Lewis Hamilton said the car problem he reported during qualifying led to his spin during his final lap.
After his first run in Q3 Hamilton asked his team to “check my floor when I come in”. He was told they hadn’t seen anything suspicious on his car’s telemetry and he went out for a final run, only to spin between turns 13 and 14.
“For some reason something gave way on the right side of the car,” Hamilton told Sky afterwards. “I was going through the chicane and I got the power and it just snapped out. And then I tried to pull away and it wouldn’t move so something’s busted.”
After qualifying Mercedes posted on Twitter: “We can confirm there was a technical problem with [Lewis’s] car, as he suspected.”
Hamilton has doubts about how much progress he can make from fourth on the grid in the race: “This is a very difficult circuit to overtake [on] so being at the front means everything here.”
“But hopefully we can get a good start like we did in Japan or something like that and we can still challenge for positions. I’m just grateful that we didn’t drop down too far.”
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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei
Force Maikel (@force-maikel)
2nd November 2013, 15:20
Well that shuts Niki Lauda up who said live on RTL he was confident this was a driver error.
magon4 (@magon4)
2nd November 2013, 15:33
still think this was a driver error…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
2nd November 2013, 16:26
@force-maikel @magon4 Mercedes have just said it was a right-rear wishbone failure.
Ean (@ean)
3rd November 2013, 10:27
Failed because of the damage he did to it on the kerb. So it is still his mistake
SharkyShark
5th November 2013, 19:18
If Alonso could have a 15G crash over the kerbs during the race and still have a properly functioning car,why did Lewis’ car get damaged after a small excursion over the Kerbs ?? Think about it.
JCost (@jcost)
2nd November 2013, 15:43
Probably his error damaged the floor on his first attempt @force-maikel
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd November 2013, 21:51
As I heard it, he continued on from something else, said he had no word yet so for now (then) leave it at driver error, which is a bit more level minded @jcost, isn’t it?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
2nd November 2013, 15:28
Wasn’t the floor damaged after that slight off in the first sector, at his first run in Q3?
Or maybe that was a consecuence of the problem they couldn’t find?
Eddie (@wackyracer)
2nd November 2013, 15:37
Yeah that might have caused it, he nailed it pretty hard
Hamilfan (@hamilfan)
2nd November 2013, 15:38
Okay so what now ? they can repair his car? or will he start from the back . How much does parc ferme rules allow to repair ?
Tae-kun You (@wok03)
2nd November 2013, 15:39
“good start like we did in Japan”?
JCost (@jcost)
2nd November 2013, 15:44
Yes, the start was good, he jumped the Bulls only to get his right rear tyre tipped by Vettel @wok03
OmarR-Pepper (@)
2nd November 2013, 16:18
@jcost you make it sound as if Vettel did “a Schum” and closed the door to damage Hamilton. It was a mistake done by the chaser, as Perez (vs KIMI) in Monaco
N
2nd November 2013, 16:24
Didn’t sound like meant that at all.
Dan Harrison
2nd November 2013, 16:25
Hamilton’s rear tyre was sliced by Vettel’s front wing – how was he the chaser when he was ahead?
JCost (@jcost)
2nd November 2013, 16:26
@omarr-pepper that’s a clear misinterpretation from you. I’d call that a racing incident and I would not say Lewis made a mistake, there clearly was a gap he exploited but Seb slightly missed his braking and couldn’t avoid him, too bad Pirellis can’t take any kind of stress.
Juzh (@juzh)
2nd November 2013, 16:56
What racing incident? What braking? They were all still in the acceleration zone. Lewis misjudged how far ahead he was and clipped himself against vettel’s wing. Exactly the same scenario as in spa last year with gro, only ham was a bit more ahead. On top of that vettel had grosjean on his right and couldn’t move 1 inch in either direction to avoid hamilton. Ham’s fault 100%.
JCost (@jcost)
2nd November 2013, 19:00
@juzh if you got past and someone is in front braking should be the call
matt90 (@matt90)
2nd November 2013, 19:14
I feel like nobody watched the incident. Hamilton moved slightly across the front of Vettel as a reaction to Webber suddenly starting to cut in towards him. A racing incident initiated by Webber. Vettel was boxed in so couldn’t do much to avoid it.
Juzh (@juzh)
2nd November 2013, 21:52
@jcost so wasn’t hamilton braking in spa last year? Gro was clearly in front of him.
Mike (@mike)
3rd November 2013, 10:21
@matt90 Well said.
JCost (@jcost)
4th November 2013, 20:59
@juzh reading your last comment just make me wonder whether you’re trying to analyse the first lap racing incident at Suzuka or you’re just into “hitting” Hamilton…
Seriously, at Spa last year Grojean went across Lewis and there was nothing to do. Sure braking was not easy at Suzuka either but those incidents are like water and oil…
Strontium (@strontium)
2nd November 2013, 21:08
@jcost It was a start incident nothing more. No need to apportion any blame
JCost (@jcost)
4th November 2013, 21:03
I was not blaming anything but fragile tyres @strontium :)
Strontium (@strontium)
4th November 2013, 21:06
@jcost fair enough :P
Dan Harrison
2nd November 2013, 16:35
Mercedes confirm a right rear wishbone failure…
HK (@me4me)
2nd November 2013, 17:13
Slightly offtopic, but whats up with Rosberg not getting a penalty? He had 4 wheels off the track at the last corner every single lap of qualifying.
Simon (@simon999)
2nd November 2013, 20:30
Pity, I think he was the only one capable of challenging the Red Bulls for the front row today. He said he was around 0.4s up on his first run in Q3 at the time of the car failure, so he could have been close – albeit maybe still a tenth or two away.
khm78 (@khm)
2nd November 2013, 21:19
The cars are in Parc Ferme. How can they repair his car. If they can repair it, then what’s the point with P.F?
bosyber (@bosyber)
2nd November 2013, 21:56
@khm, They are still allowed to replace clearly defective parts with identical specification, unless gearbox, or extra engine of course, and it is all upon approval by FIA stewards (technical delegate?) If I am not mistaken. But no setup changes.