Lewis Hamilton’s Canadian Grand Prix preparations suffered a setback after a rare error from the five-time world champion prematurely ended his Friday practice.
After topping the first practice session of the day, Hamilton limped back to the pits half an hour into the afternoon’s track time with a tyre puncture. The Mercedes driver got loose through the chicane at Turn 8/9 after hitting a sausage kerb on the inside of the corner. That put his car off balance and meant he carried too much pace through the exit.
Hamilton opened his radio channel after the incident to say simply: « Sorry, guys. »
Hamilton slaps the wall coming out of Turn 9 ?#CanadianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/oIoPRZT1ir
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 7, 2019
Although he avoided major damage to the car, Mercedes decided to change the rear of the car as a precaution. That repair work meant the championship leader sat out the remainder of the session.
It meant Hamilton missed one of the most important parts of Friday’s practice sessions, the low-fuel qualifying simulations which take place in the spell shortly after his crash took place. In those, Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel went quicker than Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas — the 0.134s which split the top three suggested there could be a very tense fight for pole position on Saturday afternoon. Hamilton was never able to improve on sixth position.
Hamilton arrived in Montreal, where he has won six times, defending a 17-point lead over Bottas in the championship.
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/26921371/hamilton-crash-hampers-canadian-gp-preparations
