A late drama from Q1 of qualifying for the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix has overshadowed the result, with Lewis Hamilton placed under investigation for impeding Pierre Gasly in the middle sector of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The incident is being reviewed by the stewards, and the verdict was still pending as the paddock began to digest one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season.
Gasly, on a push lap, came up behind Hamilton's Ferrari, which was on a warm-up lap and weaving aggressively to bring the tyres into the right window. According to the P1 with Matt & Tommy podcast — which broke down the moment in their post-qualifying reaction show — Hamilton appeared not to spot the Alpine for an extended period, only catching sight of Gasly when the cars were nearly side by side approaching the hairpin before the back straight.
"Essentially what's happened is Gasly's on a push lap, Hamilton is on a warm-up lap during Q1," host Tommy Bellingham explained. "Hamilton is weaving all over the place getting his tyres into a good window, clearly not realising that there is a fast Gasly behind pushing. And then you think, okay, maybe he's spotted him after he's gone through the right-left — nope, continues weaving until Gasly is basically alongside, then Gasly locks up or goes deep into the hairpin before the back straight."
The hosts argued that the fact Gasly still made it through to Q2 — and that the incident occurred in the opening segment of qualifying — should be irrelevant to the stewards' verdict. "I don't know a world where Hamilton gets away with this. I genuinely don't. I truly believe that this is a slam dunk impeding penalty," Bellingham said. "I know that there is the argument of, oh, it doesn't matter because Gasly made it through out of Q1. That's not how the rules work, because that would just open up the most insane can of worms — well, he almost stuck him in the wall but he made it through, so that's fine."
Co-host Matt Gallagher agreed with the principle but predicted the stewards would let it pass. "I do agree with you that I think it should be [a penalty], but the stewards love to just ignore moments like this particularly. However much we say, oh, you shouldn't take the incident into account — unfortunately, the trend is that they seem to do that. It just screams to me that there won't be a penalty, but we'll find out."
A grid penalty for Hamilton would be a significant blow for Ferrari on a circuit where Hamilton has historically been one of the strongest qualifiers. He ended up fifth on the grid for Sunday's race after running off track on his final flying lap in Q3 — a moment the podcast hosts described as having "cost him a big chance of at least P3 for Hamilton." A drop down the order from there would compound an already painful weekend for the Italian team, who are running with both a power deficit and a chassis they believe is being held back by an aggressive concept compromise.
Gasly, for his part, scraped through to Q2 by the slimmest of margins before bowing out of the top ten and being out-qualified by teammate Franco Colapinto for the third consecutive session. The Frenchman has now been knocked out of Q1 in two recent weekends, and his frustration during the in-car radio with Alpine after the incident was audible. Whether the stewards agree the moment in Q1 was avoidable — and worth a grid drop — will be one of the first calls to land before Sunday's main race.
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*Originally published on [News Formula](https://newsformula.one/article/hamilton-gasly-q1-impeding-canada-quali-investigation-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
