On 1 January 1941, "Firedrake" was one of the ships that intercepted a Vichy French convoy off Mellila, Morocco and seized all four merchant ships of the convoy. Later that month, she was involved in Operation Excess. On 31 January 1941, Force H departed Gibraltar to carry out Operation Picket, an unsuccessful night torpedo attack by eight of "Ark Royal"s Fairey Swordfish on the Tirso Dam in Sardinia. The British ships returned to Gibraltar on 4 February and began preparing for Operation Grog, a naval bombardment of Genoa, that was successfully carried out five days later. The destroyer accidentally ran aground in fog near Gibraltar on 1 March and received preliminary repairs there until 21 April. Final repairs were completed at Chatham Royal Dockyard on 19 June and she rejoined the 8th DF back at Gibraltar shortly afterwards.