Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed that he experienced bouncing before going off in Turn 19 on lap two of the US Grand Prix on Sunday. The seven-time world champion made an excellent start after starting the race from P18 as he gained six places on the opening lap at the Circuit of the Americas.
However, Hamilton failed to capitalize on a storming start as he spun at Turn 19 while encountering an understeer moment, similar to his teammate George Russell's crash in qualifying a day before.
It was a bizarre incident given Hamilton does not spin often and had done so twice during the last weekend with his high-speed spin at Turn 3 during the only practice session. Speaking via SB Nation, Lewis Hamilton discussed his early end to the race and pointed towards the issues with the car being the reason behind his crash.
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“Yeah, I had a great start, was feeling good. I obviously got up to 12th, the best start in Turn 1 that I’ve had in a long time. I wasn’t even pushing it at that point. I was just starting to get going. The car started bouncing, the left front started bouncing, and the rear end just came around the same as George [Russell} yesterday,” Hamilton said.
Citing the 'bouncing tendencies' of the upgraded W15, Hamilton felt he could've had a much better race had he not struggled with the car.
"If I didn’t have this bouncing and stuff, I mean, that, I think if it didn’t happen, that lap would have happened another lap coming up. Because something wasn’t quite right there on the car and it’s been the same most of the weekend with this new package we have,” he added.
Mercedes team principal backs Lewis Hamilton's reasoning for his spin at COTA
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff too agreed with Lewis Hamilton and claimed that the latter's DNF was "100%" down to the car and not due to any driver error.
Speaking with Sky Sports, the Austrian said:
"100 percent car. He was not even pushing at that stage. We saw it with George on Saturday, perhaps that was maybe over-pushing it, but still abruptly losing it and putting it in the wall. Today, there was wind and a bit of dirty air from the car in front. We definitely have an issue," Wolff said.
Wolff doubled down on the criticism of the car while speaking to the written press in his post-race comments and added:
"Where I sit at the moment it's 100 percent not Lewis' fault and that's not to say that I'm protecting him. It's clear it was gusty, there was a slipstream, how does all of that interact?"
Lewis Hamilton has failed to clinch a podium finish ever since his last win at the Belgian GP before the summer break, when he achieved three podiums on the trot, including two race wins. It was his second DNF of the season after previously failing to finish at the Australian GP earlier in the year.
