Lewis Hamilton was unable to fully explain what happened to cause his early exit from the United States Grand Prix in what he described as a career first.

The seven-time world champion started the race down in 17th after a disastrous qualifying session on Saturday.

Mercedes were initially hopeful of challenging at the front for the Circuit of the Americas race, but both drivers complained about the car on a difficult Saturday.

And those issues clearly persisted into Sunday’s race when Hamilton bizarrely span out under no pressure from any other driver on the third lap.

Hamilton beached his car into the gravel trap and was unable to get out in a weekend to forget for the British superstar.

Speaking later in the day, Hamilton was still perplexed as to what caused him to leave the track.

“That’s never happened before,” Hamilton said.

“I wasn’t really pushing at that point and the car started bouncing.

“Bono just said that I got a 40km tailwind but the left wheel was bouncing up in the air and I lost the back end.

“I’ve just never had that happen before.”

He added: “The same thing happened to George yesterday on this new update package that we worked so hard to bring.

“He’s obviously fortunately doing a great job today but he’s got the old package on.

“It will be interesting to see if there’s learnings from it but it’s so upsetting.

“I’m so sorry to all the team back at the factory. I’ve never spun off in a race I think before

.”It’s not that I wasn’t focused. I was really caught by surprise by this bouncing I had and obviously I’m devastated.

“I’ll just try and prepare better for next week. Hopefully have the car in a better place next week.”

Russell started from the pit lane but he was able to work his way through the pack to finish sixth.

Hamilton is now just 10 points ahead of Russell with just five races remaining.