Picture Credit: Twitter
During the curtailed FP1 session at the Canadian GP on June 16, Friday, it was a groundhog, also known as marmot, who stole the show with a surprise appearance at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. These rodents are found in abundance in Canada and have played a big part in deciding F1 races in the country on more than one occasion since 1978.
Notably, it was in 2007, when the British driver Anthony Davidson of the Super Aguri F1 Team, who lost out on scoring his first-ever points in the sport after a groundhog collided with his car and damaged his front wing. 11 years later, Roman Grosjean, the Swiss-French driver for Haas F1 Team had an accident with the groundhog, which led him to ruining his front wing. Last year, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz of Ferrari, successfully avoided a groundhog, who had dashed across his car.
On June 16, a groundhog, symbolically named as Gary, was caught on camera by the F1 team during the FP1 session, posting a short video of the moment on their official Twitter account. They captioned the tweet in an adorable manner, which read, “Hey Little Fella,” signifying the appearance of the marmot one more time in the Canadian GP.
Watch the video here:
The commentators of F1 were also going gaga for the groundhog on the live broadcast while detailing the reasons for Free Practice One session abandonment in Canada.
For the unversed, the FP1 session was abandoned at the Canadian GP as the race control didn’t have access to CCTV in the run-off or behind the barriers on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, because of the issues found in the local CCTV infrastructure. This happened after the Alpine car of the French driver Pierre Gasly broke down with a driveshaft issue, just four minutes into the FP1 session.
