Talk about a bad day at the office - again.
Another Formula One race went in the books and Lewis Hamilton made his way to the steward's office to explain his driving for the sixth time in seven races this season. With that kind of record, it's likely no one needed to show him the way.
To make matters worse, Hamilton spent most of the Canadian Grand Prix playing tour guide to R&B recording artist Rihanna after being knocked out of the race by his teammate early in the action.
It was a cruel turnaround for the 2008 world champion who hoped to jump-start his season with a good race at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, a track where he has won two of the past three races. Hamilton needed a good result after falling 58 points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel through six races.
It didn't turn out that way.
As Hamilton watched from the sidelines, McLaren teammate Jenson Button took the victory after Vettel made an uncharacteristic mistake on the last lap to hand Button the win. Had he still been in the race, the win might have been within Hamilton's grasp.
But, F1 is a game of inches and they played in 2009 world champion Button's favour while punishing Hamilton.
Eight laps into the race, Hamilton chased his teammate and attempted to get by on the start-finish straight when disaster struck.
"It appeared that Jenson braked quite late and outbraked himself into the chicane and then he got a poor exit so naturally I got a good exit and pulled up alongside him and he just continued to pull across whether he saw me or not and there was no room for me - there's no run off - so I was just in the wall," he explained.
"There was nothing I could do - it was too late to bail out. We were kind of lucky it didn't take both of us out."
Hamilton's car suffered a broken suspension part on the left rear and he retired about one-third of the way around the circuit after trying to drive back to the pits. The retirement dropped him to fourth from second in points, and he's now 76 behind leader Vettel. Drivers get 25 for a win.
While Button screamed "What is he doing?" into his radio when the contact occurred, he was gracious after the race.
"I've already spoken to Lewis and we both agree it was one of those things," he said, but would not go into detail prior to seeing the stewards.
"It's a very, very slippery surface here and a lot of people were finding it difficult to judge breaking and also it's impossible to see in your mirrors when it's wet. I think there were incidents you don't like to see obviously, but sometimes it just happens."
A few laps before the accident that ended his day, Hamilton already got himself into trouble. Following the first four laps behind the safety car because of rain, Hamilton tagged the back of Mark Webber in the first corner after the green flag and spun the Red Bull driver.
"That's two people - four people in two races I've been in contact with," Hamilton said referring to the two penalties he received in the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago for collisions with other cars.
"He seemed to brake a little bit early so I braked down the inside and tried to take the inside line and basically I think he left me enough room but I touched the curb and then just understeered into him so I apologize if it affected him."
Webber had another view of things.
"I think Lewis thought the checkered flag was in Turn 3," joked Webber, who recovered to end the day third.
"I tried to leave some room and I know it's easy to clip someone but it was a bit clumsy and I lost a lot of positions."
As for his sixth trip to the stewards this year, Hamilton wasn't about to predict the outcome.
"I have no idea how it will go," he said. "Hopefully they will say, 'Have a safe trip home.'"
Special to the Globe and Mail