Lewis Hamilton crashes at Suzuka in the first Friday practice session
Lewis Hamilton was the closest man to match Red Bull’s pace at the Japanese circuit Suzuka during the first practice session. The Brit ended up at fifth place and looked great through the sweeping first sector before the accident. He was not able to evaluate
his pace around Degner One, because of which he bottomed out, ran wide over the kerb on his exit and under steered off the track near Degner Two. But he was not able to shave off enough speed to turn the car towards the inside. The impact was big enough to
break his front-left suspension off even though from the outside, it seemed that his McLaren just merely brushed the barrier wall. Hamilton’s session ended after just 45 minutes into the session.
Jenson Button made a similar mistake as his teammate, towards the end of the practice session, smashed over the kerbs during his exit over Degner One. It seemed that the second McLaren had also crashed for a moment, making it more dramatic. However, he managed
to turn the car sideways to scrub off with enough speed to stop his car in the gravel in order to avoid the barrier. Mark Webber crossed out and missed the qualifying session at the same Degner corners and this section has become a huge problem for McLaren.
Their car is bottoming over the bump on the apex and the team lost some valuable track time that will be particularly costly as the team was hoping to bring a “big test session” during practice.
McLaren will suffer a lot if they do not recover soon as they are hoping for a vital upgrade at Suzuka for the remainder of the season. The team will now have to spend its time repairing the car rather than working on their upgrades. This will dent Lewis
Hamilton’s title hopes severely as the McLaren was expected to be very strong at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Jenson Button on the other hand will be worried about his car as well as the McLaren is drastically struggling over the Degner’s and that is not a good sign for the team with just a couple of days left in the race. If McLaren is not able to score some good
points in Japan, both the drivers’ title chances will be under jeopardy along with the team’s chances of winning the constructors’ title.
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