Hamilton 'rolled the dice' to get it right in Montreal qualifying

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes rolled the dice in Saturday's wet qualifying in Montreal, a session that the Briton described as a "hair raising" lottery, but one with a positive outcome for the Brackley squad.

Hamilton and teammate George Russell navigated their way through the first two segments of qualifying to reach the final top-ten shootout.

Both drivers set their quickest lap on their first push on the soft compound tyre, just before McLaren's Oscar Piastri triggered a red flag.

No further improvements were possible when the action resumed due to track conditions, which left Hamilton and Russell P4 and P5 in the pecking order.

However, Nico Hulkenberg's demotion from second to fifth for a red flag infringement means that the Mercedes pair will start alongside each other on the second row on Sunday.

Hamilton admitted that generating heat into his tyres in the damp and cool track conditions was a difficult task that left him with little grip to exploit.

"With this generation of cars, it is a lot trickier than in previous years to get temperature into the tyres," he said.

"The cars are so stiff so it is snappy-snappy. Very difficult to keep on track.

"The last lap, the one lap we did, it was ok but lots of snaps, the rear temperatures were unfortunately not in the window.

"It was hair-raising that's for sure. It was a lottery, rolling the dice trying to get it right.

"I don't think we did, but we got through, just."

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Hamilton reckoned a podium "is on the cards" if Mercedes can compete with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso who will start his race on the front row alongside poleman Max Verstappen.

"It would be good to have a battle with him," he added. "Our race pace is often better than our single lap pace and hopefully that's the case tomorrow."

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Russell admitted having enjoyed the treacherous conditions during which he relied primarily on his instincts.

"I enjoyed the session as the track was changing every lap and you were driving on instincts," he said.

"We didn't quite get it together in Q3 but P5 has exceeded our expectations coming into qualifying.

"As a team, we were performing better as the track was drying and when the rain came in Q3, we struggled again.

"That's the challenge of these conditions though, it makes it exciting, and I'm pleased we kept it on the circuit."

Like his teammate, Russell will be aiming for a spot on the podium on Sunday.

"I believe we can fight for a podium from P5 tomorrow. We saw what we did from P12 in Barcelona, so we are satisfied with today; it's our best qualifying result since Australia.

"Fernando is going to be our main target and we're looking forward to the race."

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