© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
During the morning session of day 2 of pre-season testing Lewis Hamilton spun and went into the gravel, while Aston Martin had an issue with Mercedes’ gearbox.
On day 2 of pre-season testing Mercedes had another eventful morning. At the halfway point of the morning session Lewis Hamilton spun in Turn 13 and ended up in the gravel trap. The session was then stopped for 15 minutes so that the car can be removed. The Briton returned to the track after about an hour and in the end completed 58 laps.
After yesterday’s gearbox problems that prevented Valtteri Bottas from participating in most of the morning session, the time lost here is definitely not good for Mercedes. And speaking of gearbox issues, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel also had to sit out most of today’s session, while the gearbox on his car was being replaced due to unspecified issues.
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Why is this important? Well, because Aston Martin is Mercedes’ customer team and uses Mercedes’ gearbox. So this means there were two issues that required Mercedes’ gearbox to be swapped in two days. Toto Wolff said yesterday that Mercedes wasn’t able to find the reason for the problem, so here’s hoping this doesn’t mean the issue will persist.
Testing resumes at 12PM GMT with Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel. Here are the times from the morning session.
