WATCH: Hamilton Drives Over Loose Drain Cover And Damages His W15

Thursday, 22 February 2024 at 15:50

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton ran over a loose drain cover during the morning session of the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

The pre-season testing in Bahrain spans over a three-day period, which every team needs to divide between their two drivers equally.

Mercedes opted to dedicate the full 1st day to George Russel and the entire second day to Lewis Hamilton while splitting the last day between the two British drivers.

Consequently, today (22nd of February) belongs to the seven-time World Champion, who had a pretty smooth start to the morning session.

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However, the 39-year-old's progress was hindered when she ran over a loose drain cover on the curb on the right side of the track ahead of turn number 11.

deni

@fiagirly

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You can see the drain cover being a bit loose already (from Leclerc having ran over it first) and Lewis Hamilton running over it! #F1Testing

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Apparently, the drain cover was dislodged by Charles Leclerc a lap earlier. Hamilton ran over it, and then the Ferrari driver ran over it again and damaged his floor as well before the session was red-flagged.

The session was later canceled an hour earlier so the track could be repaired. The lunch break was then moved one hour earlier as well, and the afternoon session was extended by one hour, which was taken away from the drivers and their teams in the morning session.

Mercedes did not share whether Hamilton's W15 suffered any major damage, but the seven-time World Champion continued in the evening session without any sort of issues.

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

@MercedesAMGF1

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The morning session has been cut short for track repairs so we’re getting an early lunch 🥙 We’ve been working steadily through our programme with 39 laps on the board so far today 👏

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Mercedes has not exactly been lighting up the leaderboards with the fastest lap times so far. In fact, the team has been quite a few seconds off the pace of the fastest cars of Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.

However, George Russell clarified yesterday after his two sessions that lap times were not at all a concern of the German team at the moment, which focused on the long runs.