Hamilton in ‘headmaster’s office’

1:34

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton suffered a puncture after hitting the wall during Practice Two of the Canadian GP.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton suffered a puncture after hitting the wall during Practice Two of the Canadian GP.

Lewis Hamilton admitted he felt as though he was sitting in F1’s version of the “headmaster’s office” after a rare mistake left him on the back foot at the Canadian GP.

The world champion completed just eight laps in second practice after clouting the barriers coming out of the Turn Nine chicane, with the impact puncturing his Mercedes’ rear tyre and damaging its floor.

“I made a mistake in FP2 and damaged the car. The boys tried really hard to fix it, but there wasn’t enough time,” said Hamilton, who escaped without damage to his race gearbox.

“I don’t remember the last time I missed a whole session before. It’s definitely not great to watch the session from the garage; it feels like sitting in the headmaster’s office, wishing to be back in class.”

3:44

Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok and David Croft are at the Skypad to look at the major talking points from the opening practice sessions of the Canadian GP.

Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok and David Croft are at the Skypad to look at the major talking points from the opening practice sessions of the Canadian GP.

Hamilton explained what had gone wrong in the incident.

“It was an innocent mistake, I was doing multiple laps on the medium tyre and was really trying to find the limit,” he said. “Obviously I went slightly over, I had a big snap out of Turn Nine and was drifting for a long time, hoping I wouldn’t hit the wall.

“But these things happen; you just have to put it behind straight away you and get back on the horse.

While Hamilton was sidelined, Ferrari upped the ante in the early stages of their weekend battle with Mercedes and usurped the world champions from the head of the timesheet.

Valtteri Bottas, second to Hamilton in a morning session Mercedes had dominated, ended up third, one tenth off the pace.

“Luckily Valtteri had a good session today, so there’ll be a lot of analysis from that,” added Hamilton.

“The boys will do a great job fixing the car tonight and we’ll come back ready for a better day [on Saturday].”

Can Ferrari truly challenge Mercedes?
The view of Sky F1’s Jenson Button…

“I don’t think that Mercedes have really turned it [the engine] up. Looking at their straight-line speed, they’re still a little bit down and on a circuit like this, they’ll have a little bit more in their pocket.

“But it’s nice to think that Ferrari can challenge them and I think they can around here.”

More to follow…

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