Hamilton left ruing 'innocent mistake' in Canada practice

Lewis Hamilton was left ruing an "innocent mistake" that saw him hit the wall in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday, bringing his day to an early end.

After leading FP1 for Mercedes in Montreal ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton missed out on the chance to complete either a qualifying simulation or race runs through second practice after hitting the wall exiting the Turn 8/9 chicane.

An initial puncture was followed by floor damage that prompted the Mercedes mechanics to replace the rear of Hamilton's car, but they were unable to get the fix completed in time to get the Briton back out on-track before the end of the session.

"I made a mistake in FP2 and damaged the car. The boys tried really hard to fix it, but there wasn’t enough time," Hamilton said following the session.

"I don’t remember the last time I missed a whole session before. It’s definitely not great to watch the session from the garage. It feels like sitting in the headmaster’s office, wishing to be back in class.

"It was an innocent mistake, I was doing multiple laps on the Medium tyre and was really trying to find the limit. Obviously I went slightly over, I had a big snap out of Turn 9 and was drifting for a long time, hoping I wouldn’t hit the wall.

"But these things happen; you just have to put it behind straight away you and get back on the horse. Luckily Valtteri had a good session today, so there’ll be a lot of analysis from that.

"The boys will do a great job fixing the car tonight and we’ll come back ready for a better day tomorrow."

Bottas was able to finish FP2 in third place for Mercedes behind Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, leaving the Finn anticipating a tight tussle with the duo on Saturday.

"The car feels strong, but we have some work to do on the balance. The car became more difficult to drive with the changes we made for FP2, but it also felt a little quicker, so we need to review if there’s anything we could have done better for FP2 and what we’re going to do for tomorrow," Bottas said.

"It’s nice to have a new engine with a bit more power; it’s not a huge difference, but you can feel it, and it’s a really good feeling. The car seemed strong on both long and short runs, but Ferrari was very quick on the straights, so I expect it to be a very close fight tomorrow.

"But I like this track and I’m confident, so I’m looking forward to qualifying."