Lewis Hamilton: “They say bad things come in threes…”

Lewis Hamilton had a frustrating day at Suzuka after damaging his car in an off at Degner early in the first session.

Repairs lasted all through the lunch break and he finally got out with only eight minutes to go. However, he had to do without the latest rear wing, having damaged his example in the off. The team is hoping to have one back on the car tomorrow.

Inevitably on the back of his Monza and Singapore collisions the accident has raised questions about the pressure he has been under lately.

“I was in the early stages of the session, I was literally on my second real fast lap, second or third timed lap, and just went wide,” said Lewis. “I didn’t actually go very wide, but I couldn’t stop the car. Just very slippery on the marbles, and I went on the gravel. The gravel pulled me even further towards the barrier and destroyed the car.

“Probably pushing hard too early. I don’t know, it wasn’t even that big an off. It was just unfortunate that the gravel was really slippery at that point when I was on it. You’ve seen a couple of people that went off there and they got away with it. They say bad things come in threes, so hopefully it’s over and done with.

“The guys did an incredible job, they really had to work hard. But they are just so good. They worked so hard and got the car out and obviously we did the last 10 minutes of the second session, but a lot of time was lost. Nevertheless tomorrow is another day, and hopefully it’s going to rain. I guess everybody has to start again tomorrow.”

Lewis admits that he doesn’t know too much about the behaviour car, and matters were complicated by the loss of the new rear wing.

“I literally did a couple of laps with the updates, and then I broke the update that I had, so I didn’t have it on that last run there. I did four times laps just now. Obviously I’m on a different wing on the rear, so just trying to get back into the groove of things. I didn’t really get a feel of where the car is exactly. Tomorrow will be a little bit different and we have another session, which is good.

“Hopefully we’ll have an updated rear wing, so it won’t be a problem.”