Sir Lewis Hamilton is optimistic that his Mercedes car has the ability to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari for wins this season.This comes after the seven-time world champion finished third in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, just behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr., claiming his first podium since the opening race of 2022 in Bahrain.While Hamilton never looked like challenging the frontrunners for the victory, the pace gap was significantly closer in Montreal than it had been at previous grand prix.‘It feels great to be in amongst the battle,’ the 37-year-old said post-race.‘For a second, I was kind of keeping up with these guys.
It’s given me and the team a lot of hope that there’s more to come from this car, the potential is there.‘When you get a full race distance you find a lot out with the car.
A lot to take from today. Got really good reliability. Great work from team.‘Just got to keep our heads down. I know where I’m losing to these guys, so that’s where I’m going to focus on attacking to improve.’As well as his first podium since Bahrain, it was also the first time since the season opener that Hamilton has finished ahead of teammate George Russell, who came home fourth.Despite the good result, Hamilton remains sixth in the standings, 34 points behind Russell who is fourth and 98 points behind championship leader Verstappen.Lewis Hamilton calls out criticism of F1 pundit Naomi Schiff after bigoted post onlineFIA set to introduce new measures to combat F1 porpoising issuesRed Bull boss Christian Horner appears to take swipe at Lewis Hamilton over back injuryWhile the issue of porpoising which has heavily affected Mercedes this year hasn’t gone away, the weekend’s result marks a big