Groundhog collision causes major Canadian GP crash and lengthy FP1 red flag
Williams' Alex Albon crashed in first practice in Montreal, after hitting a groundhog.
A big crash during the first practice session was triggered by Alex Albon colliding with local wildlife on track.
Albon crashed his Williams halfway through FP1 in Canada, having lost control due to hitting a small marmot on the exit of Turn 6.
Groundhog strike triggers heavy crash during Canadian Grand Prix practice
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Shortly after a brief red flag for a breakdown from the Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson, a more lengthy red flag period was triggered at the half-hour mark in Montreal when Alex Albon ended up in the wall in the second sector.
Exiting Turn 6, the Williams driver was shown with significant damage to his car as he slid across the track, although immediate replays showing the incident weren’t shown despite the driver being clearly uninjured.
The reason for this quickly became clear, with Albon having lost control of his car after a collision with a groundhog, a large ground squirrel that teems across the Île-Notre-Dame island upon which the circuit is situated.
With the marmot’s end captured on video, the world feed didn’t show the incident for obvious reasons, although images quickly spread across social media to show that Albon had been powerless to hit the mammal and had picked up the damage that meant he collided with the wall on the outside.
Williams has since confirmed that Albon was unable to avoid hitting the creature, with the lengthy red flag allowing for circuit officials to clean up and recover the damaged Williams.
The FIA, having added four minutes extra to the session following the Lawson breakdown, then added another 15 minutes due to the Albon incident.
R.I.P. little groundhog…
This article will be updated.
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