WATCH: Charles Leclerc pats on Lewis Hamilton’s shoulder as the Briton sat alone during Canadian GP driver parade

The Ferrari pair seemed dejected after an underwhelming start to the weekend in Canada. On the other hand, in the intra-team rivalry at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was trailing George Russell 8-1 in qualifying and was subsequently seen sitting alone during the driver’s parade. This was noticed by his future teammate Charles Leclerc, who was seen patting the seven-time world champion’s back consolidating him.

The Canadian GP weekend has brought multiple surprises to the paddock. The qualifying saw both the prancing horses out in Q2 for the first time since the Belgian GP in 2021. However, things got even more de-railed for Lewis Hamilton as he qualified P7 for the Canadian GP, which would have been an impressive result if George Russell had not claimed pole, whitewashing his senior compatriot.

Subsequently, during the driver’s parade, Hamilton was spotted sitting alone when Charles Leclerc entered the frame.

The Monegasque was seen patting the 39-year-old’s back and trying to brighten him up. This indeed worked as Hamilton could be seen glaring over who had patted him and included him in the affairs going on around him.

Charles Leclerc reckons Ferrari to be in damage control mode

While the driver’s parade kicked on in the background, Ferrari seemed to have a real task at hand to convert their subpar qualifying performance into something meaningful. This resulted in Leclerc lamenting the team’s performance around the 4.3-kilometer long track and is concerned with maximizing his points from the weekend.

The 26-year-old gave a reality check to his team.

However, until now we haven’t proved it on the dry, so let’s see what are the conditions and we’ll try to maximise the result. I think that’s the main thing in those races like that. We just need to make sure that we take the maximum points available.

Charles Leclerc said in an interview with F1

The Monegasque claimed that the SF-24 has not been the benchmark in Montreal unlike in Monaco. Moreover, even in the dry, they have been quite a way off the lead. Thus, he reckons that his team is in damage control mode around and has to make sure that they score the maximum points available from the race.

Despite, Leclerc reckoning a subpar weekend for Ferrari in Canada, the weather gods might be in the Italian outifit’s favor. The race is predicted to have showers of rain, which could be an element of surprise for the teams and flip the race upside down.

In case you missed it:

• WATCH: A young George Russell fan REJOICES after the Brit’s stellar P1 Canadian GP qualifying lap
• Sergio Perez admits to being ‘angry with himself’ after a mediocre P16 starting position for Canadian GP

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