Hamilton 'devastated' after 'surprise' career-first failure

Lewis Hamilton was left "devastated" after crashing out of the United States Grand Prix on the third lap, in an incident which came as a "surprise" to the Mercedes driver.

The seven-time world champion endured a horrific qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas which saw him start from P18; however, he made lightning progress in the opening laps. 

Hamilton had gotten himself up to 12th as he approached the end of the third lap, before spinning off at Turn 19. It brought an early end to the 105-time race winner's afternoon, which left him puzzled. 

Replays showed that Hamilton lost control of his car in a manner which he revealed he had never experienced before.

"That's never happened before," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "A first for everything, I guess.

"I wasn't even pushing at that point and the car started bouncing, I got a 40 kilometre tailwind, but the left wheel was bouncing up in the air and then I lost the back end. 

"So we have three-wheeling sometimes, it's been an issue for us. I've just never, ever had that happen before."

Mercedes confusion

Weirdly for Mercedes, George Russell suffered a similar incident at the exact same corner in the closing stages of qualifying. 

Russell's crash resulted in his car being fitted with an old specification during the repairs, as a result of the Silver Arrows not having a spare set of the upgrades it introduced in Austin. 

The Austrian Grand Prix winner started from the pit lane but did recover to sixth, salvaging some points for the Brackley-based team. 

Hamilton was bitterly disappointed with what happened but is eager to see the data from Russell's car with the old spec.

"The same thing happened to George in qualifying on this new upgraded package that we worked so hard to to bring," explained Hamilton. "He's obviously, fortunately, done a good job today, but he's got the old package on. 

"It'll be interesting to see if there's learnings from it, but it's upsetting. I'm so sorry to all the team back at the factory, I've never spun off in a race I don't think before. 

"So definitely it was not that I was not focused, I was really caught by surprise by this bouncing that I had. 

"Obviously, I'm devastated, but onwards and upwards. What can I do? I just try and prepare better for next week. Hopefully have the car in a better place next week."