Lewis Hamilton crashes in Madrid practice and ignores instruction to stop car
The Ferrari driver attempted to complete another lap despite calls from his engineer to stop
Sir Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in his last practice lap of the Madrid grand-prix circuit, and then ignored team orders to stop his car.
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Hamilton was on track to have the fastest practice lap out of his competitors before his car ended up a tyre wall on the final corner of the circuit.
However, the seven-time World Champion then failed to comply with multiple requests for him to park his car, and attempted to complete another lap of the track.
“Stop the car,” said Hamilton’s race engineer Carlo Santi following his crash.
“Car is going,” Hamilton replied, despite sustaining damage to his front wing lodged under the front-right of his machine.
Read more: F2 fireball crash at ‘car killer' Madrid circuit ahead of inaugural F1 Grand Prix
Hamilton and Santi proceed to have a back and forth on the radio. Santi asked the Ferrari driver to “Stop in the safest place possible.
To which Hamilton replied: “If I can make it back I will and if I can’t I will stop safely.”
Santi then said: “We have a puncture on the front. Stop the car.”
“I can see that,” responded Hamilton who continued to drive against his team’s wishes in an attempt to get back to his garage.
However, Hamilton failed to make it further than two thirds through his lap. He eventually pulled over to the side of the track where the car was taken back to the pits on a flat-bed truck.
Hamilton’s crash during practice came after Max Verstappen called Madrid’s Madring street circuit a “car killer” and George Russell called it the “riskiest” one on the Formula One calendar.
He is not the first British driver to crash during practice. British rookie Arvid Lindblad sustained significant damage to his Racing Bulls car at Turn 13 after briefly holding the fastest practice lap.
Fellow Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc suffered a serious crash at the Monza Grand Prix on September 6. He has been cleared to race in Madrid.
Qualifying for Sunday’s race begins at 4pm local time, 3pm BST.
