Lewis Hamilton was fortunate to bring his Ferrari back to the pits after suffering a total brake failure early in the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid. The seven-time world champion admitted he was 'lucky to make it round' after his brake pedal went to the floor.
The incident occurred while Hamilton was battling Max Verstappen for third place. The brake pedal started to feel long on the opening laps, and although Ferrari initially hoped he could continue after adjusting some settings, their hopes were dashed when he missed braking points again and brushed the wall.
“It was really unexpected,” Hamilton said. “I was braking for Turn 5 on the first lap and the car was stopping normally. And then the pedal took a step, and I ended up carrying loads of speed into the corner because it didn't stop as well. And then it came back fine in the next corner, and I thought we'd be fine. All of a sudden the pedal just went fully to the end, so I was lucky to make it round.”
The Madring's wall-lined 5.4km circuit is one of the last tracks on the calendar to coast around with dodgy brakes, so Ferrari quickly called Hamilton into the pits to retire the car. “We tried to fix it from the pit wall and then it happened again a couple of corners later,” said team principal Fred Vasseur. “Staying on track made no sense in a crazy race. We didn't want to take any risk.”
Vasseur felt Hamilton had the pace to fight up front, but because the 57-lap race was such a procession dominated by track position, he was under no illusions of a much better result than third. “When you see the pace of Charles, you can imagine that we had the pace to fight with everybody,” he said. “It's more a matter of track position. Honestly, it was mega difficult to overtake today. I'm more focused on my cars, but I don't know who overtook during the race. I think that in this situation it's just about track position. To fight is not the word, it's more a matter of position.”
The brake failure is a huge setback for Hamilton and Ferrari, who are battling for performance in the 2026 season. Although the exact cause is still under investigation, the incident adds to the list of technical issues the team must address quickly.
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