F1 Canada: Lewis Hamilton buzzing over Max Verstappen overtake

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton buzzing over Max Verstappen overtake at Canadian Grand Prix

Hamilton back to his best in Canada

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Monday 25 May 2026 01:56

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Lewis Hamilton was beaming with delight following the Canadian Grand Prix after producing his best performance in a Ferrari Formula 1 car to date.

Hamilton lined up fifth on the grid, but after the McLarens botched their tyre strategy by starting on intermediate tyres found himself in third place early on, before slipping to fourth behind Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

However, after George Russell retired for Mercedes, a virtual safety car period allowed the front runners to make their pitstops meaning the race for second behind the sole Mercedes of race winner Kimi Antonelli was between Verstappen and Hamilton.

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Hamilton gradually closed in on the four-time world champion and with six laps to go on lap 62, blitzed past the Dutchman heading into turn one to snatch second and then hold on despite failing to pull away from his old championship rival.

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Hamilton's best Ferrari day

Hamilton was in a huge upbeat mood post-race, telling Sky Sports: I'm so, so happy. Good, good, good day, good day of racing. And overall, just a really solid weekend. I've felt on the up all weekend, and the team have done a really amazing job of just refining the car, and for us to be up there battling, and also to have a good battle with Max as well, you know.

"Finally, so I'm really, really grateful, just so, so happy. I love this job, it's the greatest job in the world, and never take that for granted.

“I think there are so many elements that have come together to get the car in the right place and I think I finally have that with the engineers that I got and the whole setup within the team and I really hope that I can continue on with this performance and I'm much, much happier used to be.

Hamilton though reflected that his move on Verstappen was by no means easy, reflecting on how difficult it is to overtake with the new cars for this season.

“Wow," he added. "It's so hard in the race to overtake these guys, they have more power in the straight, so every time I gain speeds through the corner, they gain it back on the straight. I've never known something so different, it's like 10 times harder than normal, because you have to calculate how much battery power you have at the end of one straight and the next straight and the next straight and and each time you're like guesstimating what you're going to have it's like it's it's not great but it is what it is and I'm grateful that I was able to finally make the pass.”

Hamilton's second place is his best result for Ferrari and marks just his second podium having finished third at the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this season.

The seven-time world champion went the whole of 2025 without a podium in his first season for the team, but did grab a sprint win in China.

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Canadian Grand Prix