Lewis Hamilton’s debut with Mercedes started off on a sour note after the British driver crashed out of Wednesday’s test session just 15 laps into his run. The MErcedes W04 experienced a rear brake failure on the right side which Mercedes says was due to a hydraulic problem.
The repairs would take the balance of the day leaving Hamilton sidelined for the remainder of Wednesday’s testing. It’s been a difficult start to the test session as teammate Nico Rosberg experienced a electrical fire on his car on Tuesday which hampered testing as well with just 14 laps under his belt.
Mercedes Tweeted:
“Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake pressure, the front brakes enabled him to slow the car but he couldn’t avoid the barrier,”
It wasn’t the first car to experience a crash in the first testing session of 2013. Marussia’s Max Chilton had a suspension failure on Tuesday that the team said can be remedied.
