Hamilton aiming for F1 Canadian GP podium finish after positive qualifying

Lewis Hamilton is feeling optimistic after qualifying fifth for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, stating he’s taken a step forward with Ferrari, but remains far from comfortable with the car.

Hamilton beat Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc for the second consecutive round by taking fifth place in Q3 – but some 0.627s off pole position claimed by Mercedes’ George Russell.

The seven-time F1 world champion felt a clean run through qualifying aided his charge despite having felt under pressure to even make Q3.

“We’ve progressed coming into it, so that was a positive,” he told reporters on Saturday. “More often than not… [in previous qualifying sessions] there’s been something wrong with the car.

“Like the floor’s not working, or the rear wing’s stopped working. There’s always been something that meant that we were down on downforce or something.

“On one side of history, I’ve had great times here, it’s a great circuit. Lots can happen. So for that, I’m open-minded. The fundamental baseline of our car is not as good as the guys up ahead today, it’s quite far off. But I’m still hopeful our race pace can be good. The podium is still a goal.”

Hamilton, a seven-time winner in Canada, explained that the small step forward has come from a change in his driving style.

“I made a few changes in how I drove,” he said. “This car drives so much different to what I had before. You go into low-speed corners and you’re waiting and waiting. It doesn’t want to turn. It’s definitely not suited for this circuit.”

He added: “It’s just incremental steps. We’ve not had any upgrades or anything like that. It’s been the same car for quite some time now. With the same package each weekend.

“I’m constantly battling the engineers, asking questions of them. We work on trying [different] things. Bit by bit, we are making progress.

“But ultimately, we need an upgrade to be able to fight the guys up front.”