ANALYSIS: How much did Hamilton lose due to his encounter with the groundhog?
Despite displaying strong performance in qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton encountered unexpected difficulties in the Montreal round. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo analyses how much the British driver might have lost due to the damage.
Despite struggling for pace on the opening day at the Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton displayed a strong performance in qualifying. Although he was unable to challenge for pole position, he managed to secure fifth place on the grid, and hoped to be able to fight for a podium finish at Montreal.
The British driver started on the mediums, and managed to stay with championship leader Oscar Piastri in the early stages of the race. However, he accidentally hit a groundhog which meant that he picked up significant floor damage.
As a result of the incident, Hamilton lost pace as the laps went on, though he was able to cross the line sixth come the chequered flag.
After the race, it had been suggested that Hamilton lost around half a second per lap due to the damage to the floor of his car. The data confirms the loss.
The first stint was difficult to go by as Hamilton started on the more fragile mediums, and pitted for a new set of hards on Lap 15. By contrast, Leclerc elected to use the hards for his first stint which he could extend until Lap 28. Hamilton's average pace was 1m16.864s while Leclerc was just a tenth of a second per lap quicker.
The seven-time world champion hit the groundhog on Lap 11, and his lap times suddendly started to drop. Between Lap 11 and 14, he lost seven tenths per second on average which was only partly down to his degrading yellow-banded tyres.
For their second stint, both Hamilton and Leclerc opted for the white-walled tyres. The British driver produced an average lap time of 1m16.367s while the Monegasque was a full second quicker per lap.
The last stint saw Hamilton use the hards again while Leclerc was forced to use the mediums as he had only driven on the hards until that point. Despite having been on different compounds, Leclerc was half a second quicker than Hamilton on average.
As any kind of downforce losses impact cars' performance in quick corners, it is worth analyzing how much Hamilton lost through Turns 3 and 4.
The Briton recorded 133kph in this very section of the track on lap 11 while he lost five kph after his encounter with the groundhog. By contrast, Leclerc achieved 134kph on Lap 11 and was only a kph slowed three laps later.
