Lewis Hamilton revealed the reason why he suffered aerodynamic damage to his Ferrari during the Canadian Grand Prix, resulting in a significant loss of downforce.
The seven-time World Champion once again finished behind his teammate Charles Leclerc after 70 laps around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, making that nine out of ten Grands Prix that he has been outclassed by the other Ferrari driver.
It was a lacklustre weekend in general for Hamilton, although he did qualify ahead of Leclerc by setting the fifth fastest time during Q3.
But the British driver was unable to keep close tabs with the drivers around him, being passed by McLaren's Lando Norris on the track and losing out to Leclerc in the pitstop phases.
Hamilton spent a number of laps stuck in a train of slower competitors, which cost him valuable time compared to the leading pack. But this wasn't the only reason for the growing gap to the Briton's Ferrari teammate.
His race engineer, Riccardo Adami, said over the team radio that there was around 20 points of aerodynamic loss due to damage on the Ferrari, resulting in at least half a second of time loss per lap.
The reason for the damage was only revealed after the race, as Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 in the media pen.
He said: "We had a big kiss with a marmot on lap eight or lap nine. This damaged all the front part of the floor.
"It was feeling pretty decent up until then. I got a good start, held position, I was holding on to the group, I was managing the tyres well, so 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 and I’m so sad about it, that’s horrible. That’s never happened to me here before," Hamilton lamented.
Hamilton went on to explain what the unfortunate collision with the groundhog, which are present in abundance around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, damaged on his Ferrari.
He continued: "The floor, basically, the right side has a hole in it and all the vanes are gone.
"So given that, then we had a brake issue halfway through as well, and then we stayed out probably too long in the first [pit] stop and came out behind traffic and just went from one thing to another.
"So I’m grateful that I could just finish, particularly with the brake issue I had, and bag those points," concluded Hamilton.
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