Lewis Hamilton details US GP last lap 'puncture' scare

Lewis Hamilton has explained what occurred on the final lap of the US Grand Prix after losing significant time to Oscar Piastri.

Most of the F1 field used the soft compound for their final stint, including Hamilton, who made his one and only trip to the pits of the race on lap 31.

The seven-time champion was lapping ahead of Oscar Piastri for the entire stint and had a comfortable gap of several seconds.

However, his pace dropped dramatically on the final lap and he lost major time to the Australian, crossing the line just one second ahead of the championship.

When asked by media including RacingNews365 to explain the incident, Hamilton said: “I’m not really sure. 

“I went into Turn 5 and it felt like I hit something.

“All of a sudden, I had massive understeer, and I thought that I had a puncture. I braked into Turn 11, and the thing wouldn’t stop.

“I was like ‘Geez, what’s going on?’ Somehow, I managed to hold it on in the last few corners, but I had huge understeer.

“I thought the front wing was broken or something happened with the tyre. It was close with Piastri on the last lap.”

Fourth on the road matched Hamilton's best result with Ferrari this year and was a positive turnaround from his poor pace at the start of the weekend.

Hamilton asserted he will conduct a deeper look into what else he can do to ensure he ends the season on a high.

“Definitely a trend moving forward, going in the right direction, definitely feeling better in the car,” he said. 

“I'll definitely do a deep dive in these next couple days, try and figure out how we can extract more from the car, get the car in a slightly better place.”