Mercedes explain why Hamilton struggled in US GP qualifying

Mercedes insists Lewis Hamilton’s poor US Grand Prix qualifying last weekend was due to a protective device on the steering wheel being accidentally knocked off. Hamilton had qualified on pole in Austin for previous three years but qualified only fifth last time out. “During the course of the lap, underneath his right hand, there’s a little rotary and that rotary adjusts the engine braking,” said Mercedes’ strategy head James Vowles in a race debrief. Normally it has a guard on it, and what happened is the guard had been accidentally knocked off and as he went through the lap and every time he turned the steering wheel, he accidentally changed the engine braking and that caused him to lose performance towards the end of the lap. The mechanics spotted it immediately the second the car had come back in but obviously the first run was compromised as the result.” Hamilton ended the race in the second place; however, he managed to seal his sixth championship.

Source- Reuters 

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