Lewis Hamilton says he can’t believe he’s suffered another reliability issue which “basically gifted” pole position to team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The Briton was fastest in Q1 until his front-right brake disc failed, spinning him into the barriers as he braked for Turn 13. The session was then red flagged.
Hamilton would eventually qualify 16th as he progressed through to Q2, but couldn’t set a time due to the damage to his car. A penalty for Esteban Gutierrez promotes Hamilton to 15th for the race – though he may be forced to start from the pitlane if further damage is found.
“Nico has basically got another gift, but we’ll do what we can tomorrow,” a dejected Hamilton said. “We’ll figure something out, there’s still a decent amount of races to go.
“I can’t believe it obviously, but things like this happen are sent to try us. We had done such a great job with the set-up, it felt fantastic out there and I didn’t even get to do five laps!
“I’m in a little bit of pain but that’s what usually happens when you have a crash like that. I think they said I pulled 30Gs or something like that. Even if something was broken I would still race though.”
Executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe explained why Mercedes didn’t fear a repeat on Rosberg’s car as they’re running different brakes.
“It was a structural failure of the carbon material,” he said. “There has been a history of that this year on the Brembo material, not just with our car but with other cars on the grid. Nico’s running Carbon Industrie material. Lewis’ brakes were new for qualifying but that’s normal at circuits where there’s going to be any duty on the brakes at all.
“There’s a lot of work to do on the car. We will be busy tonight and hopefully get Lewis out in great shape for the race tomorrow and see if we can recover him to the front of the pack.”
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