© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton managed to take the lead from Sergio Perez after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix standing restart, but he immediately lost control of his car due to a tyre lock-up.
After the lock-up Lewis went down the escape road, and fell to the back of the field.
“Did I leave the magic on? I could have sworn I turned that off,” said Lewis on the team radio after the race.
He was referencing the ‘magic’ button that shifts the brake balance towards the front wheels to help drivers warm up their tyres and brakes during formation laps and safety car restarts.
Later Lewis was asked by journalists to explain what happened.
“I’m not entirely sure, but I hit some sort of switch that caused only the front brakes to work,” Hamilton said.
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“There’s a button we have to help keep the front brakes up [to temperature] and, as Perez pulled over, I reacted and accidentally latched on the switch.
“It just locked up and I went straight on,” concluded the Briton.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said Lewis somehow pushed the ‘magic’ button by accident.
“It can’t be called a mistake,“ the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“We have the same procedure. He touched a button and the brake balance changed. The brake balance went all the way forward and obviously the car didn’t stop.
“It was a finger problem,” concluded Wolff.
