‘He was almost dead’ - Max Verstappen reveals near-miss with groundhog
Max Verstappen had a near-misﷺs witꦕh a groundhog en route to victory in a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix.
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen has revealed he had a near-miss with a groundhog during his drive to victory at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Montreal’s famous rodents who live on the island housing the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve can prove problematic when F1 rolls into town. Indeed, several groundhogs have had ru🐭n-ins with the car꧃s down the years.
Former Haas driver Romain Grosjean hit a groundhog in 2018, while ex-Willia♔ms racer Nicholas Lജatifi accidentally ran one over in 2022.
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Carlos Sainz and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton narrowly avoided a woodchucker during FP2 on Friday, and reigning world champion Verstappen said he too had a close shave on lap ꦑ32 of Sunday’s grand prix.
“He was almost dead,” Verstappen said in the post-race press conference. ಞ"I started to get to the last chicane and I thought i💫t was debris initially.
“I started to close in and then I’m like, oh my god, it’s an animal. So yeah, I swerved right at the las🌼t moment. I don’t know what happened after.”
Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell, ♈who finished third, in🌸terjected to say: “I saw it. He ran off.”
Verstappen replied: “He ran off. Good. Luckily, I mean, 🥂if that hits your car…”
To which, Russell joked: “I was😼 quite happy because I caught you up a couple of tenths.”
It was not the first run-in w🐲ith wildl🍬ife Verstappen has had in Montreal.
During last year’s Canadian Grand Prix, he struck a bird which got stu♉ck in the brak🍨e duct of his Red Bull.
“I really had to slow down for it beca🐽use I was a bit off the dry lin🥀e,” Verstappen added.
“Lastꦐ year, of course, a bird flew into my car. So I didn🥃’t want to have a groundhog stuck in my car as well.”
Verstappen claimed a hard-fought sixth win of the♔ season in Sunday's wet and wild race.
“It’s very rewarding,” Verstappen said. “I mean, it’s never an easy race. It’s easy to m🌞ake mistakes, especially on the int🐭ers when they were almost becoming slicks.
"You know, it was very easy to go off because the track was drying in most places, but in some corners it was still a bit too wet to go to slick tyreꦚs. And yeah, that made it just very, very difficult♌.
"But it’෴s a lot of fun to drive these kind of races now and then. You don’t want it all t𝓡he time because that’s too stressful, but I had a lot of fun out there today.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around th🌼e world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
