Lewis Hamilton's Canadian Grand Prix looked to be a promising one for the seven-time world champion, but after a "devastating" incident where he ran over a groundhog, his race was all but done.
The 40-year-old continued his impressive qualifying trend at the Circuit Gilles Villeueve, as he is yet to be beaten by any of his teammates on Saturday since making his debut in 2007.
However, despite taking P5 ahead of Charles Leclerc in P8 for Sunday's Grand Prix, after just 12 laps, the Brit ran over a groundhog, damaging the downforce of his car substantially.
"It was feeling pretty decent up until then. And then, I didn't see it happen, but obviously I heard I hit a groundhog," Hamilton explained.
"So that's devastating. I love animals, and I'm so sad about it. That's horrible. That's never happened to me here before. It's never nice to see that - I just hope it didn't suffer.
"I did destroy the front right of the car. I was just slow, just lacking a lot of performance. It was over half a second. So I was just going backwards."
Lewis Hamilton is yet to have a podium finish in a Grand Prix in 2025, sitting P6 in the drivers' standings with 79 points, 25 away from teammate Charles Leclerc
Hamilton stuck in 'no man's land'
As a result of the damage that was causing Hamilton to lose a considerable amount of time on the track, he could only come in P6, with the Grand Prix finishing behind the safety car after teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came together.
"I mean my qualifying was better," Hamilton stated as he looked back on the weekend in Montreal.
"I was holding on until the damage, I was kind of holding on to Piastri. I think with the damage, I started to drop off from Piastri.
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"We probably should have stopped around the same sort of time, but we, for some reason, stayed out, and then I lost a ton of time, came out behind a bunch of people, and then I was stuck behind people, so then I just ended up in no man's land.
"But to still come away with sixth is a positive. I think if everything was perfect, if we had done everything right and we didn't have any problems, maybe we would have fourth," concluded the seven-time world champion.
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