Hamilton totally ‘overwhelmed’ to finish on the podium in Canada
Lewis Hamilton was left feeling ‘ecstatic’ with his second podium of the season as he rolled back the years to take third place at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion has struggled with his Mercedes this season and only just made it to Montreal.
Thedesignofthisyear’scars hasledtosometeamssuffering frombouncing–knownasporpoising – at high speeds, with Mercedes among the worst.
Hamilton needed assistance to get out of his car following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a week ago and required acupuncture and cryotherapy to make it to the grid.
The 37-year-old qualified fourth in the Montreal rain on Saturday and went one better in the race, claiming the 184th podium of his career but just his second of a difficult 2022.
Asked how his back was feeling after the race, won by Max Verstappen, Hamilton said:“It’sfeelinggood,I’mback to feeling young.
“It’s quite overwhelming to get this third place, it has been suchabattlethisyearasateam – I’m so proud and inspired by mycrew.Theyarealittlebittoo quick for us at the moment, I gaveeverythingandwearegetting closer and closer.
“Icouldjustaboutseethem at the end thanks to the safety car, our pace was quite good so honestly I’m ecstatic, I didn’t expectitcomingintotheweekend. P3 is different to a win but I think it feels like that. A bit of consistency is coming, finally.
Iknowwecandobetter,Iknow Icandomore,justneedtokeep working.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the “very strong” pace of the Mercedes around the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit could see the team be “a factor” at the next race at Silverstone in a fortnight.
Despite impressing here, Hamilton reined in expectations for when he returns
home: “It feels great today to be in amongst the battle and for a second at the end there I wasjustaboutkeepingupwith these guys. It has given me and theteamalotofhopethatthere is more to come from this car, that the potential is truly there if we can get the set-up right. We’vejustgottokeepourheads down and keep working.
“I just want to be in a battle with these guys. At the
end when the safety car came in and we started again, the dream was that I could keep in that battle with them and find away–buttheywererapid.We will find a way eventually.”
Hamilton said the bouncing that had caused him such issues on the streets of Baku was “liveable” here.
His weekend greatly improved after an attempt at a set-up change left him unhappy
following Friday’s two practice sessions. This was just the second time this season that Hamilton has beaten newteam-mateGeorgeRussell – whose run of top-five finishes continued. Now, the experienced Hamilton wants to pass the buck to Russell when it comes to trialling other ways of catching the front-runners.
“It was just undriveable (on Friday),” he added. “It was just an experiment to see if the car workedthereandwemadethe changes and the car was much better balanced. It was night and day difference.
“We still have bouncing, that isn’t going away, but it was much better than Baku with the suspension that we chose.
“Maybe the second half of the season George can do the experiments.We’rejusttrying to progress as a team."