Kimi Antonelli led George Russell to a Mercedes one-two in a practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix that was interrupted after Alex Albon’s Williams hit a groundhog.
Warning: The vision below may be upsetting to some readers.
Albon crashed heavily when he was unable to avoid the animal on the exit of turn seven. Albon slid down the barriers for some distance on the straight that follows the corner, causing heavy damage to his car.
The red flag caused by the incident was one of three: the first when Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson stopped on track with a loss of steering caused by a hydraulics leak, and the final one when Esteban Ocon crashed his Haas after spinning on the exit of turn four.
Russell later bounced back after a difficult recent run to beat Antonelli to sprint pole.
Russell, who is 20 points adrift of the Italian after four races this season, headed Antonelli by 0.068 seconds after being fastest on both runs in final qualifying.
Lando Norris headed an all-McLaren second row, 0.315secs off pole and 0.019secs in front of teammate Oscar Piastri.
‘One of the risks of this circuit’
There have been a number of incidents where drivers have collided with groundhogs at the Canadian Grand Prix, including one last year involving Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.
Groundhogs, a type of large ground squirrel native to North America, are commonplace around the track in Montreal, which is on an artificial island in the Saint Lawrence River.
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“It’s one of the risks of this circuit. I know that sounds strange,” Williams team principal James Vowles told Sky Sports.
“Unfortunately there’s been a few of these.
“He [Albon] has hit a marmot [groundhog] and the damage is extensive from that point onwards.
“He needed this session. You get 60 minutes and that’s it, and to lose over half of it is frustrating.
“Back in the garage he’s more worried about his mum, who suspects he’s going to have to pay to adopt a family of marmots because that’s a consequence of that.”
ABC Sport will be live blogging all the action from the Canadian Grand Prix on Monday from 5am (AEST).
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