The founder of the animal rights organisation PETA has lauded Alex Albon for his actions in Montreal at the weekend.

In a bid to avoid hitting one of the circuit's infamous groundhogs the Williams driver crashed causing damage to his car, and sadly terminal damage to the animal. A day later, Alpine's Pierre Gasly was in collision with another groundhog.

Over the years there have been many such incident involving all types of wildlife, Sebastian Vettel famously taking avoiding action at a restart to avoid a group of seagulls which his rivals hadn't seen, while in 2007 Anthony Davidson missed out on scoring his maiden F1 points after hitting a groundhog. Romain Grosjean, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton are among the other to have had similar encounters.

PETA founder, Ingrid Newkirk, while praising Albon, called on race organisers to take more action in a bid to prevent future incidents.

"Alex Albon's decision to swerve to try to miss hitting a marmot on the track makes him a winner," said Newkirk in a statement. "Showing both courage and compassion, he made the split-second choice to value the life of a vulnerable animal, and that wins him a place on the PETA podium.

"Other species don't understand racetracks or fast-moving cars," she added, in a bid to persuade FOM and the FIA to take action. "They're simply trying to go about their lives. PETA hopes this incident will prompt organisers to implement stronger deterrent measures to protect the animals who call these areas home and the drivers themselves."

Following Friday's incident, team boss, James Vowles admitted that the incident had resulted in mixed emotions for Albon, a well-documented lover of animals... especially cats!

"His initial reaction is obviously frustration, because he was quick up on Carlos," the Briton told Sky. "In these sprint sessions, you get sixty minutes, that's it, and to lose over half of it is frustrating.

"Back in the garage, he's more worried about his mum, who suspects he's going to have to pay to adopt a family of marmots. Because that is a consequence of that."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by stackvideo, 10 hours ago

"Here in the land down under we have a saying " Never serve to avoid a kangaroo" It can keep you alive, but I do feel sorry for the groundhogs."

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2. Posted by Sam 66, 16 hours ago

"@rtw1951, agreed, we didn't evolve to the top of the food chain to eat tofu
"

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3. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 16 hours ago

"Last thing I'd want to be is on a bloody PETA podium, FFS. It's not unusual for wildlife that has been developed out of their habitats and move further into urban areas and becoming desensitized to people and cars. Especially if the area has parks with large green spaces. My area used to have a large forest trail and some years ago the city built a link road through it to alleviate traffic congestion in suburban areas. fast-forward a decade and a half and now I got rabbits in my yard foraging. I literally walk pass as they sit a few feet away from me, they don't dart off in the bushes or anything of the sort. They just look at me, not giving a sh*te and continue doing what they're doing. I suspect it's the same on Notre Dame Island.

That said, It's typical of these types of activist people like PETA. They slither on up a pedestal and wag the finger, announce something must be done and yet offer nothing in the ways of a feasible and logical solution. What do they want organizers to do? Hire people to run around the four and half kilometer length of the island with nets and scoop up all the wildlife before race weekend? Or hire contractors and builders and fence off every conceivable access to the track? Since these animals burrow that'd be a waste of money so, realistically, there is nothing one can do to completely prevent these things from happening at the circuit. It is what it is and you can be damn sure any solution or plan that were to be put in motion, the money to execute it won't be coming out of Newkirk's f@#king pocket. So she should STFU, but then again, why are we hearing from them now? Oh, It must be that time of year for PETA to drum up public attention so they can get their hands on all that delicious tax free donor dollars."

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4. Posted by rtw1951, 22 hours ago

"People Eating Tasty Animals"

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PETA founder lauds Albon

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