Hamilton crashes out of qualifying!

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Lewis Hamilton will have to start from the back of the grid for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The newly crowned world champion spun out early in the first round of qualifying at Interlagos. He was on his first flying lap of the afternoon when the back end of the Mercedes came round. He skidded over the asphalt run-off and made a hard sideways impact with the barrier.

Hamilton was initially silent when his race engineer attempted to contact him. After a few moments he was able to respond "I'm okay, guys", but he was still slow to exit the cockpit.

Hamilton took a close look at the left-rear corner of his car after stepping out. There was no immediate sign of a mechanical failure, although the car had been generating sparks as it came into the corner.

The session was red flagged to allow the car to be retrieved and the barrier checked for damage. Hamilton was taken to the infield medical centre for evaluation, as is normal after such incidents.

With no time set, Mercedes will now need to apply to the race stewards for permission for Hamilton to start the race. He will start from the back, even behind those with penalties for power unit elements.

“I’m OK. It happened really quick," said Hamilton. "It is what it is. Of course it’s unfortunate.

"I tend to just look at it as challenges are what makes life interesting, and overcoming them makes life meaningful," he continued.

Bottas takes over to keep Mercedes on top in FP3

“I just need to take whatever bubble of negativity comes from that experience and move forwards and try and grow from it.

“It’s very unusual from me. It shows we are all human and things happen," he added. "I will try to have as much fun as possible tomorrow. Years ago I came from quite far behind and had a great race."

The team will also need to examine the W08 for damage. A possible change to the gearbox may be required as a result of the impact.

Prior to qualifying, Hamilton had topped both free practice sessions on Friday. He had been second to his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas in final practice on Saturday morning.

With Hamilton's premature exit from proceedings, Bottas was left to fly the flag alone for the team in the remainder of qualifying. He duly went on to pip Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for pole position for Sunday's Grand Prix.

It's the first time that Hamilton has failed to progress from Q1 since qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps for the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix.

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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.