MONTREAL, Canada – Seven-time World champion Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes are slowly getting back to their best following another podium finish here last weekend.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.The Brit, who has close family ties to Grenada, clinched third place as reigning champion and points leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull picked up his sixth win of the Formula One season.
Hamilton has struggled as Mercedes have found themselves out-paced this year by the quicker Red Bulls and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
“It’s honestly been a great weekend for us – we are slowly chipping away,” said Hamilton.
“The Astons took a little bit of a step this weekend when they added the upgrades, but we are working on bringing some more moving forwards.
“To just have this consistency and be up on the podium here in Montreal, which is such an incredible city, and we’ve got such a great crowd here every year without fail, so a big, big thank you to everyone here.”
In last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton started from third on the grid behind Verstappen and Alonso, and lacked the pace to challenge either.
He passed two-time World champion Alonso early on in the contest but then struggled to maintain his pace, and finished five seconds behind the Spaniard.
“Firstly [it’s] quite an honor to be up there with two world champions,” he said.
“I was really excited to be third and just try to be in that mix, but unfortunately, we just didn’t have the pace.
“We knew this weekend, this wouldn’t be our strongest circuit, as we struggle in the lower speed corners particularly, and that’s really where I was losing to Fernando and Max, just on traction out of Turn 2, and pretty much every corner.
“But we’ve got a lot of work to do to just add rear downforce to the car, and a little bit more efficiency, but we are chipping away.”
