The Canadian GP gave a taste of some of the worst weather a Grand Prix weekend can witness in F1. Before FP1 on Friday, the rain intensified at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and a hailstorm hit the paddock. During this time, Lewis Hamilton asked the media personnel in the Mercedes hospitality tent to leave immediately. Journalist Laurence Edmondson narrated this incident on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast and highlighted his firsthand experience of the ‘Lewis Hamilton’ hospitality.
Edmondson stated that Hamilton instructed everyone to leave while Mercedes‘ technical director James Allison was telling the media about the upgrades the Brackley team has brought and their expected progress. Now, as the hospitality areas in Montreal are tents, the hailstorm made it difficult for everyone to record audio.
“It was so bad in fact that it got Lewis Hamilton out from his driver room to come out into the main hospitality and take a look at the door. And basically then tell the rest of us, ‘Guys, you’ve got to leave now”, Edmondson revealed.
The weather worsening on Friday took everyone by surprise with the paddock emptying completely with everyone wanting to take cover from the hail. Even journalists and photographers had to take shelter.
Meanwhile, the marshals on the track had to work overtime to clear the standing water on the track. The FP1 session faced a lot of delay due to this and teams could not run their expected program with the rain and the hailstorm.
How rain spiced up the 2024 Canadian GP
The rain and hailstorm persisted intermittently throughout Friday as both FP1 and FP2 saw a lot of running on intermediate and wet weather tires. The weather was not going to change much as per the forecasts for qualifying and the Grand Prix too.
While the 80% chance of rain in qualifying did not materialize, the Grand Prix on Sunday saw its fair bit of rain spicing up what was an already unpredictable race. Qualifying mixed up the grid quite well after Mercedes’ George Russell showed some incredible pace to clinch pole position, ahead of Max Verstappen and the two McLarens.
Massive hailstorm in Montreal right now. Both Merc drivers came to watch and Lewis just told Fred Vesti he can go out in FP1 instead #F1 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/RIKqQ3XURa
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) June 7, 2024
Add to it the rain on Sunday and the 2024 Canadian GP became a classic race, with flashes of the 2011 race in Montreal. As a result of the pit stop strategy being jumbled up with the intermittent wet-dry weather conditions, it meant that it was anyone’s race to win.
However, Verstappen held his nerve to show his wet-weather racing prowess and all his experience of the past three seasons of winning and dominating races to clinch his 60th Grand Prix victory.
