Mercedes desperate for engine upgrade

Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton are in desperate need of a power unit upgrade if they are to keep fighting with Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory at the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Bottas as the Silver Arrows struggled with their old engines on board.

Mercedes had to shelve a planned power unit update in Montreal due to a "quality issue", but Ferrari and Renault were able to bring new engines to Canada, putting the world champions at an immediate disadvantage.

Although Bottas was able to hold off the Red Bull of Max Verstappen to take his fourth podium of 2018, his inability to get close to Vettel left him in desperate mood afterwards.

"We need it, definitely," said Bottas of the new engine to Sky Sports.

"Today showed we're not quick enough. We definitely need it and we're going to get it for the next race so that's good."

Still smiling! @ValtteriBottas adds another trophy to the collection with a stellar drive to second ???????? #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/sKQ1i7hPK1 — Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) June 10, 2018

Bottas had to get his elbows out to keep Verstappen at bay off the line, showing impressive defensive instincts.

He said: "The most exciting part was really the start, trying to defend second place as hard as I could.

"It was cool racing with Max there turn one, turn two and we ended up ahead.

"After that just trying to put pressure on Sebastian, we couldn't really we didn't have enough pace. Second stint we ran into problems with fuel so I had to save massive amounts and that's why Max got so close."