Hamilton reveals distress over ‘devastating’ groundhog accident at Canadian F1 GP
Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as “devastating”.The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton’s car and leaving him distraught.He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres.But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.The 40-year-old Briton finished sixth in a race won by George Russell, well behind the leading contenders.
“I was holding on up until the damage, I was kind of holding on to Oscar Piastri I think,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.“I was feeling optimistic and then I didn’t see it happen but obviously I heard I hit a groundhog, so that’s devastating.I love animals so I’m so sad about it.That’s horrible.It’s never nice to see that – I just hope it didn’t suffer.
“That’s never happened to me here before.But the floor, basically the right side has a hole in it and all the veins are all gone.Then, we had a brake issue halfway through as well.I’m grateful that I could just finish, particularly with the brake issue I had to bag those points.But to still come away with sixth, I think if everything was perfect, if we had done everything right, if we didn’t have any problems, maybe it would have been fourth.
”Lando Norris, meanwhile, has been warned to expect “tough conversations” by McLaren after the team principal, Andrea Stella, conceded the British driver’s confidence will have been dented by his crash with Oscar Piastri.Norris collided with his teammate as they fought for fourth in the closing laps of the grand prix on Sunday.Norris accepted full responsibility for a collision he said made him look foolish and leaves him 22 points behind Piastri in the battle for the drivers’ title.Norris retired from the race while Piastri was able to take the chequered flag.“This may have an impact in terms of his confidence,” Stella said.
“We will have conversations, and the conversations may even be tough, but there’s no doubt over the support we give to Lando and over the fact that we will preserve our parity and equality in terms of how we go racing at McLaren between our two drivers.The situation would have been different if Lando did not take responsibility and apologise.”Norris was already on the back foot heading into the race following two mistakes in qualifying which left him seventh on the grid.He drove well to bring himself back into contention only to misjudge the move on Piastri, which again raises questions over his credentials as a legitimate championship contender.Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionNico Rosberg, who competed against Hamilton at Mercedes for three seasons – eventually beating the British driver to the world title in what proved his final act in the sport in 2016 – believes Norris is facing a dark period.
Reflecting on his own mental battles as he duelled for the title, Rosberg told Sky Sports: “It becomes a little bit traumatic because you start spiralling negatively down and down, and you get this repetition of: ‘I’m making mistakes, and I’m not good enough,’ and it starts to get to you in your head.“It can get really dark, and I’ve been through this, especially when you make a mistake like today where everybody can see it, you even hit your teammate, so your whole team is thinking: ‘What’s going on?’ It will be difficult for Lando to get back out of that.”Norris will be back in action a week on Sunday in Austria for the 11th round of 24.But despite his latest setback, he said: “There are plenty more races left.I don’t expect to catch Oscar easily.
I have to work hard for it and make less mistakes than I did this weekend.”
The trial that gripped Norway like a soap opera has ripped apart track and field’s most famous family | Sean Ingle
The moment that ripped apart track and field’s most successful and eccentric family came in January 2022, after the 15‑year‑old sister of the Tokyo Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was grounded by her father after school.At that point, Jakob and his brothers Filip and Henrik, were all European, world or Olympic champions, having trained like professionals since before they were teenagers. They were also major TV stars in Norway thanks to the docuseries Team Ingebrigtsen, where they appeared alongside their coach and father, Gjert.Gjert, whose manner could make an army drill sergeant sound touchy-feely, outlined his philosophy early in series one. “I don’t want to be an angry man, I want to be a father,” he said
Spaun deserves his dream but US Open chaos did not get best from world’s elite | Ewan Murray
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Hamilton reveals distress over ‘devastating’ groundhog accident at Canadian F1 GP
Lewis Hamilton has spoken of his distress after his Ferrari struck a groundhog during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, describing the accident as “devastating”.The incident occurred 13 laps into the race, damaging the underside of Hamilton’s car and leaving him distraught. He had qualified in fifth on the grid and had been hoping to make inroads on those ahead of him while managing his tyres. But the accident cost him half a second per lap and was followed by other problems with the car.The 40-year-old Briton finished sixth in a race won by George Russell, well behind the leading contenders
Nezza sings national anthem in Spanish at Dodgers as protest against immigration raids
Singer Vanessa Hernández says she chose to sing the Spanish version of the US national anthem at Dodger Stadium on Saturday as a protest against recent immigration raids.Hernández, who performs under the name Nezza, says she was warned by a member of the Dodgers staff before the team’s game against the San Francisco Giants to perform the anthem in English.After her performance Hernández posted a video to TikTok, with the caption “Watch the Dodgers tell me I can’t sing the Spanish Star Spangled Banner that Roosevelt literally commissioned in 1945 – so I did it anyway.” The video shows an apparent conversation with the Dodgers staff member. “We are going to do the song in English today, so I don’t know if that wasn’t translated – er, communicated,” the employee says
ICC ready to back WTC four-day Tests in boost for smaller nations
The International Cricket Council is ready to sanction four-day Tests in the World Test Championship to help smaller nations to play more games and longer series.In the next WTC cycle, which begins with Sri Lanka hosting Bangladesh in a two-Test series on Tuesday, only five-day Tests are permitted by the ICC which has led to an emphasis on truncated series.Of the 27 Test series to be played among the nine countries contesting the 2025-27 WTC, 17 will feature just two matches, there will be six three‑match series and England, Australia and India will all play one five-match Test series against each other.During discussions last week at the WTC final at Lord’s, the ICC chair, Jay Shah, is understood to have expressed his support for four‑day Tests, with a view to sanctioning them in time for the 2027‑29 WTC cycle. England, Australia and India would still be permitted to schedule five-Test series of five‑day matches for the Ashes, the Border‑Gavaskar Trophy and the newly named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the first iteration of which begins with the first Test between England and India at Headingley on Friday
Hollie Doyle: ‘I just want to be the best jockey – I don’t compare myself to female riders’
The jockey’s obsession with winning will drive her on again this week on racing’s biggest stage at Royal Ascot“I’m obsessed with winning,” Hollie Doyle says calmly in response to a suggestion that she seems consumed by racing, “but I do love horses as well. So that helps, doesn’t it?”The most successful female jockey in British racing history had begun our interview with an impressively crunching handshake. Doyle’s cheerfully powerful greeting confirmed that her small but muscled frame ripples with the strength of a supreme jockey absorbed in the singular world of racing. But her daily grind is elevated by more than a thousand victories in the saddle.Doyle offers a grimace of a smile when I ask if she is anything like AP McCoy, the great jump jockey, who said that the elation of a winner usually lasted less than a minute before he felt compelled to look ahead to his next fix of a victory
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