Picture Credit: Twitter/@F1
The Azerbaijan 2021 Grand Prix was undoubtedly one of the most dramatic races in recent times as the fans got to see a fairly new-looking podium in the form of Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri). However, the most exciting part of the race was that both the championship contenders, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton could not add even a single point to their tally.
The Dutch driver, who was on course of an impressive win suffered an unfortunate tyre failure in the last few laps causing a red flag. While the fans thought that they had seen enough drama for the day, 7-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton locked up on the re-start and went on the run-off area at turn 1, losing out on the podium finish. The Brit fell from P2 to P15 in a matter of few seconds and no one could actually believe their eyes, including the former F1 driver Max Webber who had an epic reaction to the incident.
Watch the video here:
What led to Lewis losing control of the car?
The Mercedes notably have a button on the back of steering which is called brake magic button. It helps in providing an instant switch to almost full front brake bias as an aid to heating up the front tyres before the start or restart of a race. In normal running, the front bias run at something like 52-53% and the brake magic can instantly push it to whatever it's been set for.
While Hamilton confirmed that he had switched it off, he could have accidentally switched it on again which took the balance bias to reportedly 86.5 % in a second. As a result, he lost control on his rear tyres, locked up and went straight on turn 1. This is how the Brit unfortunately missed out on overtaking Verstappen in driver's standings for the season and left stranded on 101 points i.e 4 points behind Max.