Lewis Hamilton crashes Mercedes during first day of testing at Circuito de Jerez

Lewis Hamilton had an embarrassing first day at his new job on Tuesday, as he crashed his Mercedes into a barrier just 15 laps into his debut as a Formula 1 driver.

The incident occurred when the British driver locked the breaks at 170 mph while heading into turn six of the Circuito de Jerez in Spain during Tuesday morning's testing session, the Daily Mail reported.

Today was Hamilton's first day as part of the Formula 1 team for which he's allegedly receiving £15million a year, a job for which he left his lengthy association with McLaren at the end of 2012.

Though Hamilton wasn't physically injured during the crash, his ego might be slightly bruised. After the incident, the session was red flagged as the brand new Mercedes W04 he crashed had to be transported back to the garage.

PHOTO: Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton crashes in test after a brake failure. #F1 twitpic.com/c1cmnw

— F1 News & Views (@F1grid) February 6, 2013

ESPN, tweeted a photo of Hamilton walking away from the incident unscathed, but the car wasn't so lucky.

Lewis Hamilton walks away unharmed from his crashed Mercedes. There have been better first days on a job twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/…

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) February 6, 2013

According to Mercedes, the accident damaged the front suspension and bodywork of the vehicle. The incident was tracked to a break-related issue.

"Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake pressure, the front brakes enabled him to slow the car but he couldn't avoid the barrier,'' a tweet from Mercedes read.

Lewis suffered a loss of rear brake pressure, the front brakes enabled him to slow the car but he couldn't avoid the barrier...

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) February 6, 2013

Mercedes said there is no news yet as to when they'll be back on track as they're still working on repairs.

Asked if he had gained any positives from the incident, Hamilton responded, "Definitely, I'm alive."