Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team pair achieve a well-deserved second-row finish for the second consecutive week, with Lewis Hamilton coming in third and Mercedes’ youngest driver, George Russell, coming in fourth. Mercedes‘ eldest statesman, took his first podium since Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain. In March of 2022, Lewis managed to get up to third position much like on Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz and George Russell managed to get passed a struggling BWT Alpine of Fernando Alonso. Taking advantage of the Virtual Safety Car, Hamilton pitted to less impact his race strategy.
Hamilton pointed out that, “It’s quite overwhelming honestly, to get this third place. It’s been such a battle this year with the car as a Team, but we continue to stay vigilant, focussed and never giving up. That’s something I’m so proud of and I remain inspired by my crew so thank you, to everyone who’s here in Montreal and back at the factory.
“The guys at the front are a little bit quick for us at the moment, I was giving it everything, but we’re getting closer. We’ve just got to keep pushing and keep pushing and hopefully we’ll be in the fight with these guys. I could just about see them in the end thanks to the Safety Car! Honestly, our pace was quite good, particularly in the second phase of the stint. We did a lot of work, back in the simulator but also here to get the set up right.”
He ended by saying, “So honestly, I’m ecstatic. I think, as I said, I didn’t expect this coming into the weekend. This is my second podium of the year, and it was really special. Especially where I got my first Grand Prix win! I love it here in Montreal so big thank you to all the Canadians!“
“Fourth, good points for the Team and it’s great to be back on the podium as Mercedes” – George Russel
Russell took advantage of his own opportunity to pit, a lap after Hamilton, during the Virtual Safety Car. Mercedes’ youngest driver kept an eye on the Scuderia Ferrari behind as Charles Leclerc was challenging him for position four.
Russell said, “I had total confidence we’d have been able to carve our way past the Haases and the Alpines. We were certainly concerned that Leclerc and Checo would be able to come through and we were fortunate enough to keep them behind us. Ultimately our race pace was closer to Ferrari and Red Bull than we’ve seen all season, but we’ve had performance issues and they haven’t.
Everything is easier in hindsight and I probably would have liked to have pitted under the first VSC but at the end of the day, I don’t think it would have changed my finishing result. The pace was really strong in the first stint, on the second stint it was strong, and the final stint after the restart, I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get my tyres working. So that was a bit of a shame, to drop back slightly and not be in the fight,” he concluded.
