Lewis Hamilton, the ‘King of COTA,’ having won five races here, for the first time, missed out on a race after doing a ‘Sbinnala’. For the unversed, the word ‘Sbinnala’ is used by F1 MeMers to refer to a driver who spins out during the race.
Fans used to mock Ferrari drivers, especially Former driver Sebastian Vettel, who often spun out after losing balance in his Ferrari car. But this time, it's not a Ferrari, it's a Mercedes and that too 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton needs to forget this year's US Grand Prix and move on with the remaining races of his last stint at the Mercedes team. Hamilton started P17 in the race and in the first corner itself, he jumped 5 places and was P12.
But in lap 3 he spun out of the track and retired from the race which is the first time since the Australian Grand Prix in March. In Turn 19 he lost control of his car's rear end and went into the gravel from where he couldn't come out.
'Very frustrating weekend' -Lewis Hamilton
The safety car came out and Lewis Hamilton was moved to his garage. On explaining the incident, Lewis Hamilton said, “I had a great start. Shot up the inside and got to 12th and I'm not even pushing the car too much and managing the tyres.
"The car started bouncing on the way and then it just lost all load of the rear and just went around on me. I've never spun in the race before, not that I remember at least, and if I have it can only be once maybe before in all these years.”
This incident is similar to what happened to George Russell during qualifying at the COTA. Mercedes seriously had some problems with their car, especially in the aerodynamic part. But Hamilton kept the car out of the barriers by moving sideways into the gravel which saved the team some huge money.
Hamilton said not finishing the race was frustrating but it's an unfortunate incident that happened there. Mercedes departs from Austin with 15 points which is their lowest since Zandvoort and they are now 152 points beside Ferrari in the constructors championship.
ALSO, WATCH: Lewis Hamilton's high-speed crash pulls out safety car at US Grand Prix 2024