Mercedes confirmed today that Lewis Hamilton's car took a 45G vertical hit in the first-lap collision with Alpine's Fernando Alonso at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, strategy director James Vowles said on Wednesday. The seven-times F1 world champion had told reporters on Sunday that he almost broke his back when the car pitched high into the air before coming down hard on the asphalt runoff area at Les Combes. The Briton, who blamed himself for the collision, had been trying to overtake double world champion Alonso for second place. 'It was a large, large impact,' Vowles said in a Q&A team debrief of the race at Spa-Francorchamps, the first of a triple-header with F1 back in action in the...
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