Lewis Hamilton described himself as “back to being young” after a surprise podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.
At the same Circuit Gilles Villeneuve where he picked up the first race win of his career back in 2007, he finished six seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen with Carlos Sainz in second.
But after one of the lowest points of his career in Baku just a week earlier and a serious back issue, he said the injury appeared to be behind him.
Following his second podium of the year – he was third at the season opener in Bahrain - he said: “I’m back to being young. It’s quite overwhelming to get this third.”
Mercedes had spent much of Friday’s two practice sessions in Montreal trying to get on top of the car’s porpoising but a frustrated Hamilton warned the car was no better.
Things improved in qualifying and both Mercedes were genuinely quick in the 70-lap race as they had been two races previously in Barcelona.
Hamilton also put out a rallying cry to his Mercedes team in a bid to finally close the gap on both the top two in Red Bull and Ferrari.
He said: “We continue to stay vigilant, focused and never give up. They were a little bit too quick for us. We need to keep pushing and then hopefully we’ll be in a fight with these guys.
“I’m ecstatic. I didn’t expect this coming into the weekend. It’s a second podium of this season so it feels very special.”
