Why Canadian GP gives Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton hope for Silverstone

After seven races finishing behind his new team-mate George Russell, Lewis Hamilton finally had reason to smile after an excellent drive to his second podium of 2022 at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The turnaround in mood from Baku last week was enormous. In fact, the change in demeanour was significant even from Friday practice in Montreal. Finally getting the measure of Russell in both qualifying and the race and the near-eradication of the dreaded bouncing and porpoising that has afflicted them so far in 2022 has seemingly put him in a happy place.

Mercedes go to Silverstone in two weeks only 40 points behind Ferrari in the standings and with (so far) bullet-proof reliability. Ferrari have had five DNFs this year and Red Bull four. Mercedes have finished every race.

But is the seven-time champion’s buoyancy well-founded? Or could this be another false dawn for Mercedes? There are, at least, a few signs of hope.

Heading into the race in Montreal last weekend, Mercedes were in arguably their worst position of the season. Afflicted by bouncing so severe in Azerbaijan that Hamilton could only struggle out of his car with assistance, the bumpy Baku track proved his - and his car’s - nemesis.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is another bumpy track with high kerbs where the problems of the W13 should have been exposed. And Friday did not give much room for optimism, with Hamilton describing his car as a “disaster” and “undriveable” after two hours of practice.

Yet they managed to turn what should have been a struggle into something that was slightly more than okay, with a decent points haul and with encouraging race pace. Hamilton’s excellence in wet qualifying would have helped that, but Russell fought back to fourth from