- German GP - Qualifying
Brake failure 'another gift for Nico' - Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton thinks the brake failure which condemned him to 15th on the grid has all but handed victory to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg for Sunday's German Grand Prix.
Hamilton was top of the timesheets in Q1 when he spun out heavily at Turn 9, something Mercedes later confirmed was a right front brake disc failure. Retirements in Australia and Canada hampered his title charge - though Rosberg retired from the British Grand Prix most recently - and the Briton expects to be up against it on Sunday.
"Nico has basically got another gift, but we'll do what we can tomorrow," Hamilton said. "We'll figure something out, there's still a decent amount of races to go. I can't believe it obviously, but things like this happen are sent to try us. We had done such a great job with the set-up, it felt fantastic out there and I didn't even get to do five laps!"
Despite qualifying 16th, Hamilton jumps one place due to Esteban Gutierrez's grid penalty from Silverstone. Hamilton insists he will be fit to race tomorrow despite taking quite a heavy bump into the tyre barrier.
"I'm in a little bit of pain but that's what usually happens when you have a crash like that. I think they said I pulled 30Gs or something like that [in the impact]. Even if something was broken I would still race though.
"It just takes you by complete surprise. It happens so quickly. When you're driving, you have to 100% confidence in the car and you never ever enter a corner thinking something is going to happen, so you hit the brake pedal and it's a real shock"
The Mercedes drivers use different brakes due to driver preference, with Hamilton using Brembo material while Rosberg opts for Carbon Industrie, which Mercedes executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe says limited the likelihood of something similar happening on the German's car.
"It was a structural failure of the carbon material," Lowe said. "There has been a history of that this year on the Brembo material, not just with our car but with other cars on the grid. Nico's running Carbon Industrie material. Lewis' brakes were new for qualifying but that's normal at circuits where there's going to be any duty on the brakes at all.
"There's a lot of work to do on the car. We will be busy tonight and hopefully get Lewis out in great shape for the race tomorrow and see if we can recover him to the front of the pack."
The FIA has confirmed that the impact Lewis suffered this afternoon was over 27G. Which meant a mandatory medical centre visit.
— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) July 19, 2014© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
