Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton's Singapore GP Final Lap Team Radio As It Happened After Critical Failure

The Ferrari driver was hit by brake issues late in the race at the Marina Bay Circuit.
Ewan Gale|
IMAGO / AFLOSPORT

Lewis Hamilton's Singapore Grand Prix took a dramatic turn in the final three laps as he suffered a brake failure on his Ferrari.

The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has taken a step forward in recent races and has managed to compete with teammate Charles Leclerc, even if the Scuderia is unable to challenge McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull for podiums.

Hamilton had found himself running seventh for the majority of the 62-lap event at the Marina Bay Circuit on Sunday, but with a sizable gap back to Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin in the final half of the race, Ferrari opted to pit him for a set of soft tires - the only driver to pit on two occasions.

The ploy worked as he flew up to the back of Leclerc who swiftly allowed his teammate through by way of team orders to allow Hamilton to mount a challenge on Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli for fifth.

With the Italian rookie on far older and harder tires, Hamilton looked certain to take the position only for sparks to fly from his left-front brake disc with just over two laps remaining, leading to a state of survival to try and reach the checkered flag.

Hamilton team radio as it happened

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari

Out of Turn 14 on lap 60, Hamilton radios his pitwall to say: "Losing my brakes mate."

Race engineer Ricardo Adami replied: "Ok, we suggest lift and coast."

Hamilton continues his complaints - "Yeah, I'm losing big time," - before sparks emerge at Turn 16, where he says: "I've lost my brakes, lost my left front."

After a lap of running off-track as he battled the car, he faced a stiff test on the final lap to hold off Alonso's advances.

Adami tried to rally his driver: "Max as you can and engine braking as you are doing. Alonso 16 seconds behind, one more lap."

The gap had dripped by the time Hamilton got to Turn 6: "Alonso 10 seconds behind," Adami told him.

Out of Turn 9, Hamilton was reminded "Don't cut the corners," to which he replied: "Ah, I'm not trying to cut corners mate."

"Understood. Alonso five behind," was Adami's response.

The Italian gave another update on the gap to the Aston Martin: "Alonso 2.5 behind."

But that was to be the last update as Hamilton pleaded: "Just leave me to it mate, leave me to it."

Hamilton would ultimately cross the line less than a second ahead of Alonso having lost 35 seconds to Leclerc in the two laps after the failure.

But an investigation into his multiple track limit breaches saw F1's race stewards impose a five-second penalty to drop Hamilton behind his former McLaren teammate Alonso and into eighth.

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Ewan Gale
EWAN GALE

Ewan is a motorsport journalist covering F1 for Grand Prix On SI. Having been educated at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, and subsequently graduating from university with a sports journalism degree, Ewan made a move into F1 in 2021. Ewan joins after a stint with Autosport as an editor, having written for a number of outlets including RacingNews365 and GPFans, during which time he has covered grand prix and car launches as an accredited member of the media.

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