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The seven times world champion failed to score
after a botched re-start that he later revealed was caused by
inadvertently engaging the car's 'brake magic' mode.
"I hit some sort of switch which caused only the front brakes to
work," he told reporters.
"There's a button we have to help heat the front brakes up and
as Perez pulled over I reacted and accidentally (turned) on the
switch and just locked up going straight as I only had front
brakes."
Red Bull's Mexican Sergio Perez had inherited the lead after
team mate Max Verstappen suffered a late tyre blowout and
crashed.
The race was halted and then re-started on the grid, with Perez
at the front and Hamilton just behind but with his brakes
smoking.
Hamilton then went straight at the first corner down an escape
road and finished 15th, ending a run of 54 races in the points
not including the missed Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain that he
sat out after testing positive for COVID-19.
The Briton said the weekend had been a "humbling" experience.
"It's been an incredibly difficult two races," he said of Baku
and Monaco, where he finished seventh and Verstappen won to take
the overall lead.
"It's obviously a very painful experience but I think today was
really a stroke of bad luck, but Max had bad luck too and these
sorts of things happen.
"I'm naturally sorry to all the team and we just regroup and try
to come back stronger."
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said the team needed to address
"underlying issues", getting the car and tyres to perform.
"We know the deficit and we know we have gaps which we simply
have to overcome but I have no doubt, this is a team which is so
strong and so angry, and we are going to turn that anger into
positive form and come back," he added.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
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