{"id":690059,"date":"2026-05-24T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690059\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:06:14","slug":"second-groundhog-hit-by-formula-1-car-during-canadian-gp-weekend-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690059\/","title":{"rendered":"Second groundhog hit by Formula 1 car during Canadian GP weekend \u2013 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another Formula 1 driver had a run-in with the wildlife at the <a title=\"Circuit Gilles Villeneuve\" href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/f1-information\/going-to-a-race\/circuit-gilles-villeneuve-montreal-circuit-information\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Circuit Gilles Villeneuve<\/a> on the second day of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/pierre-gasly\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pierre Gasly<\/a> ran over a groundhog during Saturday\u2019s qualifying session, 24 hours after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/2026\/05\/22\/antonelli-leads-extended-practice-after-albon-hits-groundhog-and-crashes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alexander Albon hit one in the practice session<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While Albon crashed after hitting the animal, Gasly was able to continue. However the damage to his car further complicated the difficulties Gasly has had with his car since the previous round in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Pierre, we tried some experiments on set-up and changed some aerodynamic components to try and put him in a happier place in the car,\u201d explained the team\u2019s racing director Steve Nielsen. \u201cWhile it\u2019s marginally better, he\u2019s clearly still not at ease with the package as it stands and we must continue digging to understand why as it\u2019s certainly uncharacteristic to see him so far off where we expect him to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, he suffered some floor damage in Q1 as a result of hitting a trackside groundhog, which impacted his car\u2019s handling in Q2.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gasly appeared unaware of the damage to his car when he spoke immediately after qualifying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re extremely slow on my side,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know we clearly have work to do, but at the moment it\u2019s just been two weekends, exactly the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can feel that it\u2019s something is not working, but I need the team to help me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Several drivers have collided with animals in previous events at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but such incidents appear to have become more common. In addition to the two groundhogs killed this weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/lewis-hamilton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> hit another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/2025\/06\/15\/hamilton-devastated-after-horrible-collision-with-groundhog-during-canadian-gp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">during last year\u2019s race<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-above-ad\">Advert | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/contribute-racefans\/racefans-supporter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Miss nothing from RaceFans<\/p>\n<p>Get a daily email with all our latest stories &#8211; and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:<\/p>\n<p>2026 Canadian Grand Prix<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racefans.net\/tag\/2026-canadian-grand-prix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Browse all 2026 Canadian Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another Formula 1 driver had a run-in with the wildlife at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-690059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}