McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that either debris or human error caused Lewis Hamilton to crash out of second place on the penultimate lap of the Spanish GP.
Hamilton looked set to comfortably take second place ahead of Fernando Alonso, however on lap 65 his tyre deflated which led to the Brit flying off the track into the tyre wall, ending his race.
McLaren, along with Bridgestone, have been working back at the teams factory in Woking to discover the cause of the accident. They have ruled out a tyre failure as well as Hamilton’s driving style which many believe to be overly aggressive.
Whitmarsh told F1Fanatic.co.uk that it’s likely the rim failed due to either ‘debris or an issue of tightness, or lack of, in the wheel nut allowing some flexing,’ probably caused by ‘human error somewhere in that process.’
Investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Heikki Kovalainen suffered a similar problem at the same track in 2008 when he drove for the British team.
