Lewis Hamilton crashed his Mercedes Benz in a test run in Jerez, Spain. It was the drivers first run with the team after switching over from McLarens. This is definitely not the way Hamilton expected to make his debut with a new race team.
Thankfully, Hamilton was unharmed and suffered only soreness in his legs. Mercedez Benz quickly commented on what could have been a great disaster as the 28-year-old is looking to continue a successful career in Formula One.
"Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake pressure, the front brakes enabled him to slow the car but he couldn't avoid the barrier," said Mercedes. "We have traced the problem to the hydraulic brake line connecting to the right-rear caliper," the team added.
Hamilton was 15 laps into the test run. He had completed his best lap in a minute and 19.519 seconds before suffering the crash. His brakes locked and he couldn't control the car's speed as it veered off the track and went into a tyre wall.
This is the way Hamilton described it following the accident.
"I hit the brake, and for a split second it was working,' said Hamilton. 'But then the pedal just went straight down. It wouldn't work anymore. Then I just had to brace for impact. The front brakes were working, they were locking up and then I hit the gravel.
If all the brakes had stopped working then I would have hit the wall pretty bad. I must have been doing about 200mph or so before I hit the brakes and I was coming down the back straight. I went in straight and my legs took a bit of a thump."
[CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IMAGES OF THE ACCIDENT]
Fortunately for Hamilton, he will not be racing in the car as the team will eventually have to repair the vehicle.
Hamilton is the 2008 World Champion.
