Lewis Hamilton crashes Mercedes during first day of testing

Lewis Hamilton had an embarrassing

first day at his new job on Tuesday,

as he crashed his Mercedes into a

barrier just 15 laps into his debut as a

Formula 1 driver.



The incident occurred when the

British driver locked the breaks at

170 mph while heading into turn six

of the Circuito de Jerez in Spain

during Tuesday morning's testing

session, the Daily Mail reported.



Today was Hamilton's first day as part

of the Formula 1 team for which he's

allegedly receiving £15million a

year, a job for which he left his

lengthy association with McLaren at

the end of 2012.



Though Hamilton wasn't physically

injured during the crash, his ego

might be slightly bruised.



After the

incident, the session was red flagged

as the brand new Mercedes W04 he

crashed had to be transported back

to the garage.



Hamilton crashes in test after a

brake failure. #F1 twitpic.com/

c1cmnw

— F1 News & Views (@F1grid)

February 6, 2013



ESPN, tweeted a photo of Hamilton

walking away from the incident

unscathed, but the car wasn't so

lucky.



Lewis Hamilton walks away

unharmed from his crashed

Mercedes. There have been

better first days on a job

twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/…

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) February

6, 2013



According to Mercedes, the accident

damaged the front suspension and

bodywork of the vehicle. The

incident was tracked to a break-

related issue.



"Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake

pressure, the front brakes enabled

him to slow the car but he couldn't

avoid the barrier,'' a tweet from

Mercedes read.



Lewis suffered a loss of rear

brake pressure, the front brakes

enabled him to slow the car but

he couldn't avoid the barrier...

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@

MercedesAMGF1) February 6,

2013



Mercedes said there is no news yet

as to when they'll be back on track as

they're still working on repairs.



Asked if he had gained any positives

from the incident

, Hamilton responded, "Definitely,

I'm alive."