Lewis Hamilton has revealed he ran over a groundhog at the Canadian Grand Prix, saying he felt “devastated” about the collision.

A large population of groundhogs live on Montreal’s Ile Notre-Dame where the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is situated, and incidents involving the animals have also occurred at previous Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton said he was unaware he had hit the groundhog at the time, but was later informed of the incident, which he believed happened around Lap 12 of the race and resulted in damage to his car.

“I got a good start [to the race], held position, I was holding onto the group and managing tyres well, so I was feeling optimistic,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “Then, and I didn’t see it happen, but I heard I hit a groundhog.

“That’s devastating, I love animals and that’s so, so sad. That’s never happened to me here before.

“But the floor, the right side, there’s a hole in it and all the vanes are all gone.”

The damage to the underside of the car saw Hamilton’s race unravel as he dropped from fifth place to seventh, which became sixth when Lando Norris retired following a collision with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

Hamilton said his Ferrari also had brake issues during the 70-lap race, meaning he felt fortunate just to see the finish.

“Given that and we had a brake issue halfway through as well, and we stayed out probably too long after the first stop and came out behind traffic and it just went from one thing to another,” he added. “So I’m happy I could just finish, especially with the brake issue I had.

“We’re really in need of an upgrade and there’s a lot of things that need to change before we can fight at the front.”

In 2007, Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson had to pit for a new front wing after running over a groundhog, while extensive damage was caused to Romain Grosjean’s Haas in 2018 after a similar incident during a practice session.