Hamilton says Mercedes losing out in low-speed corners

Lewis Hamilton admitted that Mercedes were still missing out in the low-speed corners despite the introduction of a series of upgrades to the W14 which had previously improved their fortunes in Monaco and Barcelona.

Although Hamilton and his team mate George Russell topped the practice times in a disrupted Friday practice in Canada, and succeeded in locking out the second row of the grid in qualifying for today's race, it proved a tough day for them.

Hamilton snatched second place from Fernando Alonso at the start but was powerless to hold on to it when the Aston Martin pressed the attack again after the first round of pit stops.

"Unfortunately we didn't quite have the pace today to challenge for more," he admitted when interviewed by Jenson Button in parc ferme after the end of the race.

"We knew that this weekend, this wouldn't be our strongest circuit as we struggle in the lower speed corners particularly," he said. "That's really where I was losing to Fernando - on traction out of turn 2, out of pretty much every corner.

"We've got a lot of work to do just to add rear downforce to the car, and a little bit more efficiency," he continued. "But we're chipping away as I said, and I do believe we will get there at some stage.

"I think the Astons took a little bit of a step ahead this weekend when they added [their own] upgrades," he suggested. "But we're working on bringing some more moving forwards."

• Read also: Verstappen cruises to victory over Alonso in Canada

Once again, Hamilton was forced to admit that race winner Max Verstappen was effectively out of reach of the rest of the field from the moment the lights went out.

"Max was a little bit gone," he confessed. "But I think our pace was a little bit closer today, so we're going in the right direction."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff agreed that they had been "much closer than we would have expected at the beginning of the season".

"We were not too far away from Max. The margin is still large so we have lots more work to do. We are on a positive trajectory though and the update package clearly works well," Wolff added.

"Today's race was an encouraging one for the team," he added. "We knew that Canada was going to be one of the more difficult circuits for us, so to come away with a podium is a solid result."

And in terms of the quality of the company in which he found himself on the podium - Verstappen and Alonso - Hamilton had no complaints, saying it was an honour to be up there and to celebrate with them.

"To have this consistency and to be up on the podium once again here is fantastic," he said. "It's quite an honour to be up on the podium with two other world champions.

"Honestly it's been a great weekend for us," he concluded, although that view possibly wasn't shared on the other side of the Mercedes garage after Russell crashed after clipping the kerb coming out of turn 9 on lap 12.

"I just went a bit wide into turn 8," Russell told the media back in the paddock at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. "Next thing I’m in the air, I landed and lost the rear, and I’m in the wall."

Although he was initially able to continue, Russell eventually retired on lap 55 with a brake issue that he felt was unrelated to the original accident.

It means that Aston Martin has closed the gap in the constructors championship to 13 points thanks to a double points finish for Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Russell has fallen to fifth place in the drivers standings behind Carlos Sainz, while Hamilton has slipped three points further behind Alonso in their battle for third place behind the two dominant Red Bull drivers.

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