Hamilton causes red flag with FP2 crash

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Lewis Hamilton caused a red flag early in FP2 for the Hungarian Grand Prix after hitting the tyre barrier at high speed.

The defending champion lost control of his Mercedes on the entry to Turn 11, sliding sideways across the tarmac run-off area and into the tyres at relatively high speed. The impact with the tyre barrier was measured at 10.4G, and with marshals moving towards the car the session was red flagged.

Amazingly, Hamilton was able to get moving again having hit the barrier square and limped back to the Mercedes garage with only damage to the tyres and the left hand side of the front wing visible. However, Mercedes will have to check the structural integrity of the whole left hand side of the car, and confirmed Hamilton will not run again on Friday.

"That's obviously session over for Lewis," a Mercedes spokesman said. "Although he made it back to the garage the car needs to be fully stripped and checked after the impact with the barrier."

The session remained under red flags for a number of minutes as tyre barrier repairs were required following the incident. The impact had pushed a row of tyres back across the grass and needed returning to the edge of the run-off area.

Hamilton was quickest by 0.001s over team-mate Nico Rosberg at the time of his crash, having already topped FP1. The Briton had to go to the medical centre for a check-up after the impact as it set off a sensor on his car.

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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.