Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in ’embarrassing’ moment at Canadian GP

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were caught up in an “embarrassing moment” of confusion at the Canadian Grand Prix. The two Mercedes drivers were waiting at the end of the pit lane despite FP1 having been red-flagged.

Mechanics had to run over and wheel both cars back into the pit garage after a persistent CCTV issue prevented any running after the first three laps were interrupted by a crash. Ted Kravitz called out the Silver Arrows’ mistake and pointed the finger at team bosses.

He said on Sky Sports F1: “Yes, it’s slightly embarrassing for Mercedes this isn’t it. I don’t know whether Ron Meadows, the sporting director there is some sort of mystic meg and had a restart time that none of the other teams had. Having dispatched both cars, obviously because the team’s sporting manager thought that the session was going to restart within a reasonable amount of time.

“It’s a slightly embarrassing run of shame for the mechanics to go and get Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and wheel them back.”

Mercedes confirmed the issue on social media just minutes after TV cameras showed Hamilton and Russell rolling back. However, they didn’t suggest anyone had made an error with the updates from the FIA only coming when the two cars had already left their garage.

They wrote on Twitter: “Our W14s were waiting at the pit lane exit, but an issue at Race Control has delayed the session restarting. Was only communicated when the drivers got to the end of the pit lane but both cars have been pushed back to the garage.”

The session was eventually cancelled with FIA chiefs confirming extra time would be added onto the start of FP2. The second session was moved to start at 9.30pm UK time instead of 10pm with teams given 90 minutes to run their programme.

But FIA chief Steve Nielsen suggested the issue was still being resolved after FP1 had concluded. A statement from the governing body read: “The delay will be longer as the CCTV is not synced correctly and until the issue has been fixed we cannot run on track.

“This system is a local installation and they are continuing to work to resolve the problem. The clock will continue to run down on FP1 and the session won’t be extended as there must be 2.5hrs between FP1 and FP2.”