Incredible new footage shows how Hamilton avoided disaster
Fresh vision from an over-the-shoulder camera on his Mercedes has detailed how Lewis Hamilton calmly turned potential disaster into a breezy near miss.
The reigning Formula One champion was setting a fast time at pre-season testing in Barcelona this week when he caught up to Robert Kubica.
Unsure of how Kubica was going to approach the final turn, the Briton kept his pace in the hope that he could pass the Pole’s Williams on the straight.
That didn’t happen.
As new onboard vision released by Formula One showed, Hamilton was forced to lock his right rear tyre as he flicked his steering wheel left to continue on his way on a section of unused track.
Watch the incredible footage in the video player above
The moment leading up to the near miss looked hairy yet afterwards the No.44 was driving one-handed like nothing ever happened.
Ricciardo lights up track behind Renault turnaround
Nico Hulkenberg ended Formula One’s first pre-season test in Spain on a high for Renault on Thursday with the fastest lap so far by any of the new crop of cars.
The 31-year-old German, who holds the unwanted record of most races (156) without once stepping on the podium, lapped the Circuit de Catalunya in one minute 17.393 seconds in the late afternoon and on the softest tyre.
His car then stopped on the track, however.
Toro Rosso’s Thai rookie Alexander Albon had led the lunchtime timesheets with a lap of 1:17.637, while Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo was third-fastest.
The relative pace of the two front-running teams from 2018 remained unclear, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas suggesting the Italians were a step ahead while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc accused the champions of ‘sandbagging’.
British-born Albon, one of three Formula Two graduates making their F1 race debuts when the season starts in Australia on March 17, completed a whopping 136 laps — on top of 132 on Tuesday.
That seemed a good indication that the new Honda engine, now also used by Red Bull, had made good gains in both performance and reliability after the problems of recent years.
Albon’s Russian team mate Daniil Kvyat had been fastest overall on Wednesday while Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly covered the second most ground with 148 laps.
Renault, who had said before testing that their engine had made a big step up over the winter, also showed good pace and Ricciardo was second fastest on the morning timesheets.
They did less mileage than others, however, on Thursday.
Five-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was fifth, just behind Bottas who set his best lap on the softest and fastest tyres, but did his stint in the colder morning temperatures.
“In general, the car was feeling better today and is coming together. However, we still have to keep on digging deep, analysing the data and the changes that we are making,” commented Hamilton.
“The reliability has been really solid which is a great showing of all the hard work that everyone in the factory has done.”
with AAP
