Lewis Hamilton explains unprecedented US Grand Prix DNF as Toto Wolff speaks his mind

The United States Grand Prix was arguably the worst crash of Lewis Hamilton’s entire F1 career after he had to qualify at 19th place and then went off the race track driving the Mercedes barely completing two laps on a gravel trap.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton admitted that he has “never” spun off the track before in his style which happened only two laps into the United States Grand Prix.

The seven time world champion endured a terrible weekend at a circuit, which the cyclist has proved himself in previous seasons. That was until now because heading into this year’s edition of the event he had never finished outside the top five here at the Circuit of the Americas.

Seventh on the grid for the Sprint was followed by a dismal Q1 exit in qualifying for the main event, 19th out of the 20 drivers in that first part of the sessions. He began the race 17th on the grid, because of an engine penalty for Liam Lawson and a pit lane start for team-mate George Russell.

But though Hamilton made early progress, his race was over within minutes as, with no-one particularly close to his Mercedes, he lost the rear end of the car and span off into the gravel, where it became beached.

“I had a great start, obviously shot up the inside and got up to 12th,” he said after trudging back to the paddock. “At that point, it was only the second lap, so I qm not flat out and not pushing particularly, just trying to manage the tyres.

On the way in the car was dancing, and then it just lost all out of the rear and it just went around on me. I have never spun in the race before, not that I remember at least, and if I have it can only be once, maybe, before in all these years, so definitely frustrating but I do know that it is not that I was not focussed or anything, it was just unfortunate.

Mercedes claimed that blustery conditions at the Texas track played a role, as in their official post-race press release they said the team “measured a large gust of wind, up to 40kph, which likely didn’t help”.

And team principal Toto Wolff was quick to clear his driver of any responsibility for the accident. He said: Today, something in that corner that started from the blue sky happened. He was not pushing. So from where I am sitting at the moment, it is 100 percent not Lewis’ fault. That is not to say that I am protecting him – it is clear.

We are keen on (finishing on a high before Hamilton’s Ferrari move), but how his mindset and how the relationships are in the team, it is as good as we ever had. The first thing he came out with was an apology for the occurrence in question. To my mind, I do not believe that it was his mistake. Something caught him out.

We want to celebrate it and finish it on a high and I am sure we will. Whether we can do it with great performance in the car, that would be fantastic. If not, then at least we will try our level best. I believe he will be observing what they are and so we believe that red car is fast.