Hamilton reveals distress over ‘devastating' groundhog accident at Canadian F1 GP

The Guardian

5 hours ago

Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as 'devastating'.
The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton's car and leaving the animal lover distraught. He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres. But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.
The 40-year-old Briton finished sixth in a race won by George Russell, well behind the leading contenders. 'I was holding on up until the damage, I was kind of holding on to Oscar Piastri I think,' Hamilton told Sky Sports.
'I was feeling optimistic and then I didn't see it happen but obviously I heard I hit a groundhog, so that's devastating. I love animals so I'm so sad about it. That's horrible. It's never nice to see that – I just hope it didn't suffer.
'That's never happened to me here before. But the floor, basically the right side has a hole in it and all the veins are all gone. Then, we had a brake issue halfway through as well. I'm grateful that I could just finish, particularly with the brake issue I had to bag those points. But to still come away with sixth, I think if everything was perfect, if we had done everything right, if we didn't have any problems, maybe it would have been fourth.'
Lando Norris, meanwhile, has been warned to expect 'tough conversations' by McLaren after the team principal, Andrea Stella, conceded the British driver's confidence will have been dented by his crash with Oscar Piastri.
Norris collided with his teammate as they fought for fourth in the closing laps of the grand prix on Sunday. Norris accepted full responsibility for a collision he said made him look foolish and leaves him 22 points behind Piastri in the battle for the drivers' title. Norris retired from the race while Piastri was able to take the chequered flag.
'This may have an impact in terms of his confidence,' Stella said. 'We will have conversations, and the conversations may even be tough, but there's no doubt over the support we give to Lando and over the fact that we will preserve our parity and equality in terms of how we go racing at McLaren between our two drivers. The situation would have been different if Lando did not take responsibility and apologise.'
Norris was already on the back foot heading into the race following two mistakes in qualifying which left him seventh on the grid. He drove well to bring himself back into contention only to misjudge the move on Piastri, which again raises questions over his credentials as a legitimate championship contender.
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Nico Rosberg, who competed against Hamilton at Mercedes for three seasons – eventually beating the British driver to the world title in what proved his final act in the sport in 2016 – believes Norris is facing a dark period.
Reflecting on his own mental battles as he duelled for the title, Rosberg told Sky Sports: 'It becomes a little bit traumatic because you start spiralling negatively down and down, and you get this repetition of: 'I'm making mistakes, and I'm not good enough,' and it starts to get to you in your head.
'It can get really dark, and I've been through this, especially when you make a mistake like today where everybody can see it, you even hit your teammate, so your whole team is thinking: 'What's going on?' It will be difficult for Lando to get back out of that.'
Norris will be back in action a week on Sunday in Austria for the 11th round of 24. But despite his latest setback, he said: 'There are plenty more races left. I don't expect to catch Oscar easily. I have to work hard for it and make less mistakes than I did this weekend.'