Lewis Hamilton raised concerns about his car’s handling during the formation lap for the US GP Sprint at Circuit of the Americas, reporting a “clicking” sound under braking. Starting P7 for the 19-lap race, Hamilton immediately noticed this issue, which later prompted Mercedes to investigate further after the race. The technical issue persisted throughout the Sprint, affecting his car’s handling and his overall performance during the event.
Mercedes identified the source of the problem after the Sprint race, discovering that a broken bearing in the suspension was the culprit. James Allison, Mercedes’ technical director, explained that the broken bearing affected one of the car’s wishbones, which led to inconsistent handling and the clicking noise Hamilton reported. Although the issue was in the front end, it caused instability in the rear, making the car feel unpredictable and loose, ultimately hampering Hamilton’s race.
Despite the suspension issue being rectified before the United States Grand Prix qualifying session, Hamilton’s troubles continued. He suffered a surprise elimination in Q1, setting up a challenging race day. However, Mercedes confirmed that the suspension problem was fixed and did not reappear during the qualifying session, ensuring that Hamilton’s struggles in qualifying were unrelated to the earlier mechanical issue.
Starting P17 in the Grand Prix, Hamilton made early gains but his race was cut short by a spin into the gravel at Turn 19 on the second lap. This incident occurred at the same corner where his teammate, George Russell, had also ended his qualifying session. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff quickly absolved Hamilton of any blame for the spin, attributing it to external factors such as gusty winds and dirty air, rather than driver error.
Wolff reiterated that the spin was not Hamilton’s fault, explaining that even though he wasn’t pushing hard at that moment, unpredictable conditions contributed to the incident. He emphasized that Hamilton typically doesn’t make such mistakes, especially on an early lap, and linked the issue to similar problems faced by Russell, suggesting there was an underlying problem with the car’s setup or external conditions.
