Lewis Hamilton pitlane crash at Canadian Grand Prix infuriated Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton doesn’t always make mistakes especially in the autumn of his Formula 1 career but when he does slip up, it can be a catastrophic blunder.

Admittedly many of these came very early in his career, which can be expected of young drivers, and it’s something the seven-time world champion has pretty much dialled out.

Unfortunately some of Hamilton’s howlers were so big you really just can’t forget them. We’re not talking running wide on crucial qualifying laps, making a bad start or even an unfortunate crash when trying to pass or defend from a rival driver.

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We’re talking about ‘what on earth has he done there?’ levels. The most spoken about ones are from 2007 such as him running into the gravel at the Chinese Grand Prix, or the hot-headed first lap at Brazil which cost him the world title.

This one actually comes a year later when he did win the world championship, at the chaotic Canadian Grand Prix.

READ MORE: F1 star crashes after hitting animal at Canadian GP

What happened to Hamilton in the Canadian Grand Prix?

It started on lap 16 at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal, when the Force India of Adrian Sutil broke down with a gearbox failure, resulting in him pulling over at turn three.

But it was the car catching fire that caught the attention of race control, resulting in a safety car.

Hamilton had led up to this point for McLaren but he pitted along with those behind him including Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and Robert Kubica’s BMW.

But Hamilton lost out in the pits, as Raikkonen and Kubica both emerged from their respective pit boxes in front of the McLaren.

However, due to the the advantage you can get from pitting under a safety car in Montreal, which includes missing the final chicane and the following turn one, a red light was put on at the end of the pitlane.

This meant that Raikkonen, Kubica and Hamilton all had to wait at the end of the pitlane until the red light turned green again, allowing them to leave and emerge back on the track at turn two.

Once the light did turn green, only Kubica of the trio left the pitlane. Why? Because while Raikkonen and Kubica were neck and neck at the line before the pit exit, Hamilton wasn’t looking at the red light as he left his box and clumsily crashed into the world champion.

To be fair to Lewis, he wasn’t the only one. Nico Rosberg in the Williams just behind him made the same mistake in hitting Lewis after he had already hit Raikkonen.

Kimi Raikkonen’s reaction

Both drivers got out the car at roughly the same time and Raikkonen remained remarkably cool, simply going up to Hamilton patting him on the back and pointing to the traffic lights Hamilton should have been looking at.

And I say remarkable, because 10 years prior, Michael Schumacher made a beeline for David Coutlhard looking to punch him after the McLaren star accidentally crashed into him at the Belgian Grand Prix.

But Ferrari seethed at Hamilton’s post-race comments and his… well… rather curious choice of words on his role in ruining Raikkonen’s race and chance to go top of the drivers’ championship.

Hamilton: I may have ruined Kimi’s race

With a smile, Hamilton said: “It was one of those things, I guess. It’s different to if you crash into the wall and you’re angry about it, it’s not like that. I apologise to Kimi if I’ve ruined his race, but I guess that sort of thing happens.”

First of all, crashing into other racing drivers in a pitlane behind a red light isn’t something that ‘just happens’, it’s mad enough when it occurs on a public road.

But what about the word ‘if’ there? Did Hamilton really leave it open to suggest he wasn’t at fault for ruining Raikkonen’s race? It was an extraordinary statement for what at the time was a crucial incident concerning the world championship.

Raikkonen, curiously, after the race was not as calm as he was at the time of the incident, which post-race saw FIA stewards hand Hamilton a 10-second penalty for the next race at the French Grand Prix.

“I can’t believe that he did not see the red light and, more than that, the two stationary cars there,” he said.

“For my part, I think Hamilton deserved his penalty. He loses 10 places for the next race in France and, at least, that’s not going to make things any easier for him.”

Eventually though it mattered little, Hamilton still went on to win the title and Raikkonen’s collapse in form later in the season meant the 10 points he missed out on still wouldn’t have got him even near second place occupied by Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.

The big winner from the crash though was Kubica, who took full advantage to win his and BMW’s only F1 grand prix.

READ MORE: McLaren bringing F1 monster to fight Mercedes at Canadian Grand Prix

I’ve been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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