Lewis Hamilton cut a distraught figure at Hockenheim today, as his Mercedes refused to ‘function’ during Q1, following a hydraulic failure.
Hamilton complained of a gear issue and after the car stopped running for good, he got off his machine and tried to push it in order to take it to the pitlane and stay in the hunt for Q3.
However, his attempt to somehow drag his car into the pitlane turned out to be futile, as his car ultimately had to be dragged off the track.
Hamilton kneeled down and sobbed a little before quickly rushing out of sight.
The highlight reel showed that Hamilon had run wide on Turn 1, and ran over a bump that possibly caused the hydraulic fault.
According to Karun Chandhok, who spoke to Toto Wolff after the incident, Wolff confirmed that the ‘trip over the exit kerb’ on Turn 1 led to a drop in Hydraulic pressure.
“Just spoke with Toto Wolff who confirmed that unfortunately that trip over the exit kerb at Turn 1 led to a drop in Hydraulic pressure and caused them to make the call for Lewis to stop the car. Going to be fun to see what he can do tomorrow!” Karun Chandhok tweeted.
However, Hamilton told the media later that the hydraulic issue had occured before Turn 1.
“No, we use the kerb the same every lap. We got to the kerb and just before the kerb the steering broke, so that was the issue.” Hamilton said.
Hamilton was quizzed about his mindset going into tomorrow’s race and he conceded that it was going to be extremely tough tomorrow.
“It definitely was a tough one. But these things happen and all you can do is gather your thoughts and [take] any of the negative energy and out it towards trying to do your best the next day. Live to fight another day. Another opportunity to rise.
“I’ll give everything tomorrow to see how high I can get up. But it’s not going to be like Silverstone.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to get through to some point but to where I don’t know,” Hamilton said.
