Lewis Hamilton explained how his brake problem suddenly appeared in Madrid, causing his first retirement of the 2026 season.
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Lewis Hamilton experienced an extremely short Spanish Grand Prix. Starting fourth on the grid and immediately involved in a battle with Max Verstappen, the Ferrari driver was forced to retire on the seventh of the 57 laps after a failure of his braking system.
After the race, the Briton detailed the timeline of the problem. It all started at the braking of turn 5, when the pedal behavior suddenly changed. Hamilton then went straight on and slightly touched the barrier, before his brakes temporarily returned to normal operation. The problem however came back a few corners later, leaving him ultimately no chance to continue.
Everything changes at the braking of turn 5
Hamilton had nevertheless made an excellent start. Fourth behind Norris, Antonelli and Verstappen, the seven-time world champion immediately joined the battle in the first corners.
The Ferrari driver explains that he did not exactly see where Verstappen was at the moment of this hectic sequence. But it was not his duel with the Dutchman that directly caused his retirement: the real problem appeared a few moments later.
“I had a good start. I didn’t see Max and I wasn’t really in the battle arriving at turn 5.”
Hamilton then pressed the brake pedal and noticed almost immediately that something was wrong.
“When I arrived at turn 5, I braked and the car started to slow down normally. Then the pedal suddenly changed behavior and, all of a sudden, the car didn’t want to stop anymore.”
A first contact with the wall
Deprived of the ability to slow his Ferrari normally, Hamilton could not stay on the racing line and went too wide. He then touched the barrier, but the contact seemed light enough not to cause significant damage.
“I ended up going wide and that’s when I touched the barrier. But the contact didn’t really seem violent to me.”
Even stranger, the problem then temporarily disappeared. The brake pedal returned to normal behavior and Hamilton was able to continue for a few laps without encountering the same difficulties.
“Then the pedal came back and everything worked normally in the following corners. Everything seemed to be fine.”
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This respite was unfortunately only short-lived. Hamilton quickly noticed that the pedal was again going down too far, a sign that the braking problem was still present.
“Then the pedal became long again.”
Hamilton had no chance to continue
From that moment, the situation quickly deteriorated. Hamilton cut a chicane, then let Verstappen and Charles Leclerc pass as he lost all confidence in his ability to slow his SF-26 properly.
He then spun in a runoff area at turn 20 while trying once again to slow his Ferrari. After reporting to his team that he had practically “no brakes left”, the Briton finally returned to the pits to retire on the seventh lap.
This retirement ends an impressive streak. Hamilton was until then the only driver to have completed all laps of all Grands Prix and Sprint races held in 2026. It is also his first retirement since the São Paulo Grand Prix 2025.
A first since 2014 for Hamilton
You have to go back much further to find Hamilton’s previous retirement directly linked to a brake failure. The last time was at the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix, when he was still driving for Mercedes.
Madrid thus marks the 35th retirement of his career, for his 394th start in Formula 1. The timing is particularly painful since Hamilton arrived in Spain 76 points behind Antonelli in the championship and could still hope to reduce the gap thanks to his fourth position on the grid.
Instead, Antonelli won while Hamilton left without scoring any points, dealing a major blow to his last title hopes.
Hamilton briefly responds to Verstappen
The Briton also commented on his duel with Verstappen at the start. The Red Bull driver had strongly contested the order to give back positions after going off track, claiming he would have been involved in a collision with Hamilton if he had tried to stay within the circuit limits.
Asked about his rival’s criticism, Hamilton did not wish to fuel the controversy and gave a particularly concise response.
“To be honest, I thought it was a very good battle on track.”
An episode that will ultimately remain secondary in the weekend of the Ferrari driver. After briefly glimpsing a chance of a podium in the first meters, Hamilton mostly saw a rare brake failure turn his Grand Prix into his first retirement of the season.
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