Mercedes AMG Petronas may have missed an opportunity as many tipped a motivated Michael Schumacher as a potential winner fo the grand prix this Sunday. The 7-time champion was on his 2nd hot lap in Q3 when the team radioed that he had not crossed the line in time and simply ran out of time. That’s not how Schumacher saw it:
“I don’t think you can talk about satisfaction, rather disappointment, because we’ve been on a good run,” said Schumacher.
“We’ve been [in] Q1, Q2 everything perfect. We tried the first run in Q3 on a single lap, didn’t work and then we reverted back to a two-lap run.
“I started my second lap, see the green light, and then the team called me and said ‘no, you’re too late’. So that’s it and I don’t understand why. I saw the green light, passed it just on time but…”
The world feed showed a seemingly frustrated Schumacher raising his hand after slowing on his final lap. The German had just passed a slowing Ferrari leaving some to believe he had been balked but that seems not to be the case.
If being a 7-time world champion, a 7-time winner of the Canadian Grand Prix and having the number 7 on his car isn’t enough, the German will have to pull something special from his hat of tricks to win the race on Sunday as he’s slotted in 9th for the start. The good news is that 3 of the last 10 races have been won by a driver outside the top 5 so he may have a chance as long as he survives the first turn.
