Mercedes took a podium in Canada with Valtteri Bottas but Lewis Hamilton managed only fifth place in the seventh round of the 2018 Formula 1 world championship.
It was the fourth podium finish at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and fourth second place of the 2018 season for Bottas
“We tried everything we could, but I don’t think we had a chance to really fight for the win”, Bottas said. “I had an exciting start to the race, when I was defending second place as hard as I could. I was on the outside in Turn 1, trying to carry a lot of speed to be on the inside line for Turn 2. I went wheel to wheel with Max [Verstappen], we fought hard, but it was all fair and I was just happy that I managed to stay ahead of him. After that, I was trying to put pressure on Sebastian [Vettel], but didn’t have enough pace.”
“The Ferrari was controlling the race and we just weren’t quick enough. I backed off late in the race to save some fuel which is why Max got so close. We were the only top team that didn’t bring a new engine for this race, everyone else had an improved power unit. Hopefully, the introduction of our new engine in France will help us in the fight with Ferrari and Red Bull.
2nd today ?
Ferrari was just quicker today unfortunately. We will keep pushing on @MercedesAMGF1 ??
French GP in two weeks ?#VB77 #F1 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/GtkjYfAZ2i
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) June 10, 2018
The fifth place was Hamilton’s 32nd consecutive finish in the points
The Englishman also slipped to second in the overall standings, 1 point behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (121 points).
“It was a tough day in the office, but I’m just very grateful that I scored some points. From the start, I was down on power and my engine was overheating. I couldn’t get the temperatures down, so I just thought it was going to fail. Every single lap I was waiting for the power to just drop away and disappear – but it kept going. I could have lost a lot more points; fifth is not the strongest result, but it could have been a lot worse. Ferrari has been doing a slightly better job and brought a better package, but we are very close. The guys are working really hard, but each and every one of us can always do better and improve. We will just keep our heads down, keep pushing and stay positive.”
We will come back stronger for the next race. It’s how you get back up that matters the most. We win and lose together, thank you so much for the support and positivity #TeamLH. Looking forward to France and until then we will keep our heads down and keep pushing @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/6PDJpPDHaP
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) June 10, 2018
