An unexpected brake behavior ended Lewis Hamilton’s Spanish Grand Prix in Formula 1, when the British driver was still quite competitive with Ferrari. The situation started with a different braking than usual, with a ‘long’ pedal, and reappeared shortly after, leading the team to end his race.
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Hamilton had a positive start, occupying third position and involved in the battle with Max Verstappen. At the first chicane, the Red Bull Racing driver passed ahead by cutting the corner, but the team later ordered him to give back the positions gained, after Hamilton indicated that the maneuver should be reviewed.
The decisive episode for Hamilton happened a few corners later. The Brit explained that he noticed something wrong even before braking at turn 5. When pressing the pedal, the car initially started to stop, but there was a sudden change in the brake response.
“I pressed the brake, the car started to stop, and then kind of… the pedal gave a kind of jerk, and suddenly, the car didn’t decelerate as fast as it normally would and I ended up entering with too much speed,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
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The excess speed caused the driver to lightly touch the barrier. Despite that, at that moment the pedal returned to function normally. However, the situation was not resolved, as a few corners later, Hamilton again noticed that the pedal had ‘sunk’.
“Then, I think a few corners later, the pedal sank again. So, I really don’t know where this comes from,” he added.
With the problem persisting, Ferrari called Hamilton to the pits and decided to retire the car from the race. The retirement ended a race that had started with the Brit in third place but was compromised by the irregular brake behavior.
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