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Hamilton crashes as F1 tests start
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Lewis Hamilton walked away from a heavy crash after putting in the first laps of Formula One’s new turbo era in testing with Mercedes yesterday.
Twin black streaks of scorched tire rubber at the end of the Jerez pit straight marked the asphalt where the 2008 world champion had locked up and careered into the tire wall.
Mercedes blamed a car failure, on the Briton’s 18th lap of the day, for the crash and was investigating. Witnesses said the front wing appeared to break off.
Hamilton also crashed last year in his first test for Mercedes after moving from McLaren, whose car had yet to break cover on a remarkably quiet Tuesday with all teams grappling with the new power units.
By lunchtime only Hamilton and Toro Rosso’s Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne had set timed laps and only five cars had been seen in action in Spain.
One of them was Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, that brought out the first red flag of the day when it stopped out on the circuit early on.
With a thin new moon still visible over the circuit, Hamilton eased the sleek-looking F1 W05 out of the pitlane shortly after 9am for an installation lap before silence resumed.
Formula One has ditched the ear-splitting 2.4-liter V8 engines for a new turbo-charged 1.6-liter V6 with complex energy recovery systems and more emphasis on fuel economy.
Mercedes, which carried out a private 40-kilometer shakedown at Silverstone with Germany’s Nico Rosberg on Friday, presented the car in the pitlane shortly after dawn with champion Red Bull taking the wraps off its RB 10 challenger minutes later.
More than four hours after the test started, Red Bull’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel had still to appear on track as the team worked on an unspecified problem that had emerged overnight.
Ten of the 11 teams — all but Lotus — are in Jerez.
Preseason testing continues here until Friday. The season opens with the Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
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