Lewis Hamilton, who is on the verge of meeting the all time record of seven world championship titles, have met his first red flag.
Hamilton had to halt his pre-season testing after a red flag was raised because of his W11 ran out of power.
As Mercedes testing came to an end, Ferrari rose to the top with Sebastian Vettel.
On Thursday afteroon, Hamilton was practicing at Barcelona circuit with its new W11 to know more about it when his 90 minute session came to an end.
Hamilton while trying to get his hands on his new car was struck between turn 6 and 7. The engine lost power which led to red flags during the testing. Additionally, W11 seems to have jammed third gear.
Unfortunately, Mercedes had to pit their car to reasoned out the cause for the problem face by Hamilton. The initial investigation revealed that loss of power was caused by an “oil pressure anomaly, which made the engine shut down as a precautionary measure.
“We will keep investigating further but unfortunately that concludes our running for the day.”
Earlier Mercedes had three engine problems. Valtteri Bottas who ran on track was losing track time. It forced the team to use a new power unit. Also, Williams have been struck with engine problems leading to third engine during testing.
Hamilton have been unfortunate to not fully experience his car. He was only able to run for 14 laps and have only left one more day to experience W11 before the season starts.
Like Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel cause a red flag on Day 5 causing the session to halt.
The German driver could not judge Turn 5 and lost his control. He went off the track and left the gravel on track.
However, four time world champion was able to find himself on top for the day with 1:16.841 reported time. It was first P1 for Ferrari during pre-season testing of 2020.
Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri drive, managed to find himself behind Vettel with 1:17.006 time.
Lance Stroll made to third position while Nicholas Latifi kept the Williams at fourth for the day.
