Hamilton’s win at Canadian GP a three-peat

Lewis Hamilton cruised to his third Canadian Grand Prix victory in a row and his sixth overall, while Canadian rookie Lance Stroll finished ninth to win his first Formula One points on Sunday.

Hamilton raved about the work of the team’s bosses and engineers, who have made it a two-team battle again after Ferrari looked ready to take control of the F1 championship.

“They did such a great job of analyzing what went wrong, all the points,” he said. “It was amazing teamwork.

“We came here and the car’s back to where it should be. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be like that all the time, but I think we learned a lot. It should put us in strong position from here moving forward. We know which direction we need to be developing the car from now on.”

The 18-year-old Stroll, on the grid for the first time at his hometown race, finished a grand prix for only the third time in seven races this season but achieved his goal of earning his first points at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he watched the Canadian Grand Prix as a child. He earned two points.

“I knew we could do it,” said Stroll, who was 17th on the starting grid and fought his way up to a top10 finish. “We’ve always had the pace but some things just weren’t going our way. Today, everything went well and I couldn’t be happier. The car was great today.”

A first-lap mishap that damaged the two Ferraris made it an easy day for the Mercedes AMG team. Hamilton took the checkered flag with teammate Valterri Bottas safely in second place.

Daniel Ricciardo held third place for ahead of F1 leader Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari. Force India’s Sergio Pewrez and Esteban Ocon were fifth and sixth with Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari seventh.

It was Hamilton’s third win in seven races this season and closed the gap in the standings with Vettel.