Lewis Hamilton won the duel against Max Verstappen in the final laps of the Canadian GP this Sunday (24) and secured second place, achieving his best result for Ferrari and the second podium of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Meanwhile, the Red Bull driver secured his first top-3 of the year.
Read more F1: Bortoleto finishes in 13th place at the Canadian GP
Right after the race, the drivers commented on the battle in the drivers’ lounge. “I couldn’t get rid of you!” joked Hamilton. Verstappen replied: “In the middle chicanes, every time you gained three tenths, but I recovered on the straight.”
“It was crazy,” said the Brit. “You got bad traffic,” analyzed the Dutchman.
Hamilton also added: “In the end, I don’t know if it was Bortoleto. Oh my God! I don’t know if our car is extremely draggy or if it’s just the power.” Verstappen praised his rival: “You were very good in turn six.”
In the race, Hamilton lost position to Verstappen at the start but reacted with an aggressive final stint and made the decisive overtake on the outside of Turn 1. Even after taking second place, the Ferrari driver remained under pressure until the checkered flag. In interviews after the race, Hamilton thanked Ferrari and celebrated his return to the podium:
Read more Check the F1 2026 championship standings after the Canadian GP
“First of all, I have to thank my team immensely here,” said the seven-time world champion. “These guys welcomed me with open arms, and it has been quite difficult in the last year or so, so finally finding our sweet spot and having good weekends is an incredible feeling to be back here on the podium.”
Hamilton also highlighted the duel with Verstappen: “I really got to have a battle with Max, which was great.”
Verstappen evaluated the result in Canada positively: “I’m happy with that. Nice battle with Lewis at the end. We need to keep improving more than our rivals. That’s our goal,” added the Red Bull driver.
Read more F1: Check out the full results of the 2026 Canadian GP
The podium in Canada was the 204th of Hamilton’s Formula 1 career.
