Lewis Hamilton crashes million worth Pagani Zonda in Monaco

Pagani Zonda is a sports car built by the Italian manufacturer Pagani. It debuted in 1999, and production ended in 2011, with three special edition cars – the cars are made of carbon fibre. They are considered to be among the costliest and owned by famous people.

Those who drive on race tracks – knows driving and the machine too, well.  Some time back when he bought Ferrari LaFerrari, it raised many eye-brows for it  is no ordinary road car and has 499 more.  Ferrari reportedly has a laborious process of  selecting owners of its more limited run cars.  They are not sold through dealers ! perhaps  successful Formula 1 drivers get a pass on this whole process, yet, still, this man taking delivery of  LaFerrari, complete with a V12 hybrid powertrain making 950 horsepower, rocketing it 0-60 in under three seconds and a top speed of 186 mph, made news as he is from a rival stable.

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, is  a British Formula One racing driver currently racing for the Mercedes AMG team. He is the 2008 and 2014 Formula One World Champion. Coming from a mixed background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One”. He has more race victories than any other British driver in the history of Formula One and is currently tied for third on the all-time wins list, with 42 wins.

At Sochi he won  and was joined on the winners' podium by Russia's President Vladimir Putin. The pair took a moment to celebrate together as Putin handed over trophy ~even before the President got down, Hamilton started spraying champagne. Mercedes driver Hamilton took first place today, ahead of Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany, and Force India driver Sergio Perez of Mexico and his moment of glory was enhanced when President Putin stepped up to congratulate him on the podium, taking some time away from his activities in Syria to share in celebrations. After enjoying Hamilton's moment of glory, the Russian leader was ushered off stage after a quick wave to the crowd. The champagne split on the leader too, which was not the correct.

He is news again, this time not for his driving skills – rather the other way.  Three-time World Champion, and Mercedes Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton, was involved in what was said to be a minor crash in Monaco. The F1 superstar took to Instagram earlier this week to inform fans of what had happened, that he was ok, and fit to compete in this upcoming weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix. While the F1 star came out of the wreck without injury, his custom $2.2 million Pagani Zonda 760LH did not. It’s unclear what happened to the one-of-a-kind supercar, but according to Lewis Hamilton’s Instagram, “Nobody was hurt, which is the most important thing. But the car was obviously damaged and I made very light contact with a stationary vehicle.”

The accident was said to have been immediately reported to the local authorities and occurred around 3 am in Monaco. The one-off Zonda isn’t too badly damaged is the expectation , especially considering it was one of the last Zondas with a manual transmission ever built by Pagani.

After being checked out by Mercedes’ team doctors, Hamilton was cleared to take part in the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix. Although, competing honestly doesn’t matter since Hamilton had already clinched the championship during the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.  Later, Lewis Hamilton blamed crashing £1.5m supercar in  Monaco on 'heavy partying and not much rest'. 

The British F1 ace, whose £1.5million Pagani Zonda supercar hit three stationary vehicles in the early hours on Tuesday morning, said: ‘It was a result of heavy partying. I am a bit run down.’ The triple world champion’s accident happened in Monaco just before he was due to fly to Sao Paulo for this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.  The purple supercar can reach speeds of 217mph.

Hamilton’s arrival had been  delayed – he missed a sponsor event, blaming a fever – before revealing on the social website Instagram that he had had an embarrassing road accident in his purple Zonda, which has a top speed of 217mph, a 760 horsepower engine and does 0-60mph in 2.6seconds - and was commissioned exclusively for Hamilton by the Italian manufacturer, hence the model number being 760LH. A spokesman for Monaco’s Palais de Justice told Sportsmail: ‘Mr Hamilton’s foot slipped on the brake and clutch pedals and his vehicle struck three parked cars. He was tested for alcohol but the result was negative.’

Hamilton, who used to be virtually teetotal, says he now parties hard, both in Monaco, where he lives, and with friends in Los Angeles and Miami. He promised to drink lustily for weeks after winning the title in Austin last month, with his mother Carmen’s party in London last weekend, a highlight in his social calendar.

So who is a good driver ?

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

14^th Nov. 2015