• Jerez Test, Day Two

Hamilton insists he's unfazed by brake failure

Lewis Hamilton completed 15 laps on his first day in the Mercedes © Getty Images

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• Lewis Hamilton

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• Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton insisted he is unfazed by the brake failure which struck him during his first day of running for Mercedes at Jerez.

Hamilton had completed just 15 laps when a hydraulic problem led to a rear brake failure under braking for turn six. The problem occurred at 260kph and, although the front brakes were able to slow the car to 60kph by the time it impacted with the barriers, Hamilton explained that it was immediately clear there had been a failure.

"I hit the brake and for a split second it was working and then the pedal just went straight down and wouldn't work anymore, and then I just had to brace for impact," Hamilton said. "Not really [a big impact] - it didn't feel great initially but it was nothing much ... my legs did, surprisingly because I went in straight but my legs got a bit of a thump."

Asked if there were positives he could take from the incident, Hamilton said: "Definitely; I'm alive!

"This is what testing's all about. Of course we would love to have done several days and it is disappointing for all of us in the team because everyone has worked so hard over the winter and we didn't anticipate this, but I'm glad we get it out of the way now so we don't have to worry about it hopefully in the future."

Although Mercedes has completed just 29 laps so far at Jerez, Hamilton said he would rather struggle at the first test than the last.

"You can't get fazed by these days, you've just got to keep looking forward and remain positive. The guys in the garage are not trying to have this kind of thing happen, they're working as hard as they can, and back at the factory. I'm glad that this didn't happen in the last test at Barcelona - that would really suck - but with having it now we can get it out of the way. If there's any more problems to come I hope that they come tomorrow and the next day and then we can have a few days after that."

Hamilton's morning time remained sixth quickest at the end of the day and was ahead of Sergio Perez's best time for McLaren, but Hamilton said there is still a lot of downforce that needs adding to the W04.

"That [1:19.519] was an easy time to do, there's definitely more in it but I'm pushing the aero guys as hard as I can because I need more aero, for sure. Coming from a McLaren that was so competitive at the end of last year and had incredible downforce you definitely notice a difference."

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