Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton explains final day spin

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Lewis Hamilton concedes he was caught out by track conditions when he spun and brought out red flags on the final day of the first test.

Two hours in to Wednesday's running, Hamilton lost the rear of his car at the chicane and stopped with his car pointing across the track, causing the session to be red flagged. Explaining the incident at the end of a day when he had still managed to complete over 100 laps, Hamilton admits the drying track caught him out.

"It was a bit damp," Hamilton said. "I was the first on slicks and I had a spin.

"Generally I got some decent mileage, and although you always want more the reliability has been pretty special this week."

Despite completing over 200 laps across his two days in the car, Hamilton says he is yet to notice any substantial improvement with the new car.

"Every single time I've driven the car never feels good the first time because the car is at its worst, the tyres are not good in the cold conditions here in Jerez. It never feels good the first time, that's just how it is, but you know that's the worst it's going to be this year because it will get better throughout the year.

"Overall the car feels very, very similar to last year, so very difficult to pick out any differences."

Click here for the full final day gallery from the Jerez test

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.