Lewis Hamilton was left dealing with a broken seat after suffering a frustrating issue with his Mercedes car during the middle part of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Silver Arrows star was alarmed on the team radio on lap 25, telling race engineer Pete Bonnington: “My seat is broken!”
Hamilton wasn’t the only Mercedes driver struggling on the Sakhir International Circuit asphalt. Team-mate George Russell was struggling to cool his power unit down while following in traffic.
Offering some insight into the 26-year-old’s struggles, Ted Kravitz noted: “Mercedes say there aren’t any issues, it’s just when they are running in traffic they are getting very hot.”
Hamilton was in high spirits heading into the first race of the 2024 season with the seven-time world champion expecting his W15 to show more pace than in qualifying after optimising his set-up for speed on Saturday.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, he noted: “Yesterday, was really good. Me and George were on the same set-ups but he went left and I went right. Right was definitely not good for a single lap but I felt more comfortable with more fuel, so I hope that reflects tomorrow.
“I’ve definitely sacrificed more than I hoped to and I hope it pays off tomorrow. It’s a lot of work to do to get past all those quick cars ahead of me but it will be fun.”
However, the 39-year-old – who started from ninth on the grid – struggled to make inroads during the opening stages and it took him 35 laps to move past Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri to claim P7.
His team-mate, meanwhile, snatched P2 from Charles Leclerc on the third lap, but the cooling issues he faced dropped him down the field to fourth at the time of Hamilton’s seat issue.
