Formula 1 fans saw more groundhogs than racing cars during FP1 at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The first practice session was to be the first chance for fans to watch the cars hit the Montreal track. But the red flags were flying after just a couple of minutes as Pierre Gasly pulled over at the side of the track.
The Alpine driver quickly diagnosed the problem over the radio. He told his team: "I lost the driveshaft, let me know what to do. No gears!"
The red flags flew for what was expected to be a short delay. But that would be the end of the session as it became clear that there was a safety problem with race control which meant officials were not willing to give the green light for cars to head back out on track.
Mercedes were caught out by the development, having already sent out both their cars to the end of the pit lane. But it soon became clear the delay was going to be a lengthy one, as a spokesperson for the team said.
They said: "Both cars headed to end of pit lane but then a problem in race control meant the circuit was not reopened while it is resolved. This issue was only communicated when cars reached end of pit lane. So we have brought the cars back as they would have lost any useful tyre temperature."
Sky commentator David Croft reported that it appeared to be a problem with the CCTV cameras around the track. And, a few minutes later, the FIA issued a statement confirming that to be the cause of the unusual delay.
"The session restart has been delayed due to issues with the local CCTV infrastructure around the circuit," the governing body said. "The local organisers are working to resolve the issue and until that time we can't restart for safety reasons.
"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 the clock will continue to run down on FP1. We are looking at options to extend FP2."
More than half-an-hour later, there was still no sign of the action restarting any time soon and the TV cameras were returning several times to the groundhogs which are a regular sight around this circuit. As the timer does not stop in practice, it was becoming more and more likely that there would be no more running in that first hour of the weekend.
And that was soon confirmed by the FIA, with Valtteri Bottas topping the timesheets after such limited running. The governing body also confirmed that an extra 30 minutes had been added onto FP2 – assuming the camera issues are resolved in time.
The lack of TV cameras presents a significant safety issue. The race director uses those cameras dotted around the circuit to make sure everything is running smoothly and it is often where any problems are first spotted.
The delay was bad news for nine of the 10 teams who lost valuable running time. But it was hand for Alpine who were able to get a low-loader onto the track to recover Gasly's car and bring it back to the pits, without losing time compared to their rivals.
