Lewis Hamilton has hailed his sixth victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve "incredibly special" after he scored a perfect weekend with pole position to match his hero Ayrton Senna, whilst also leading every lap of the race before claiming the win – putting him one behind Michael Schumacher's record seven in Canada.
The Mercedes driver bounced back from a difficult race in Monaco to close the gap to championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth, thanking his team for getting on top of the problems that hampered him a fortnight ago.
"I had my first pole here, had my first win here 10 years ago so to repeat it this weekend is incredibly special," he said on the podium.
"I have to thank my team who made this possible, the guys at the factory have worked so hard to really fix what we had in the last race to bring it here, and really give it to the Ferraris.
"It’s great Valtteri did a fantastic job to collectively get great points, I’m over the moon. An amazing weekend. I feel very grateful. Super happy."
Discussing his strategy, which saw the Briton stop much later than his rivals – on Lap 32 – Hamilton admitted it was a bit of a gamble to go with the soft tyre compared to the more popular supersoft.
"We discussed the different strategies [before the race]. It was quite an easy strategy…the one stop. We were supposed to stop on Lap 21. I didn't have any problems with the tyres, so we decided to extend [the stint].
"Pace was still very good. Nobody has run the soft tyre so we didn't know the pace – if you could wake it up and if it would be as quick. I stayed out, everyone had pitted, but I was still doing faster laps than everyone that had pitted."
Hamilton, now just 12 points off Vettel, added: "You always need perfect weekends like this. There was a lot of time to think whilst I was up-front, reliving the memories from 2007 when I was here and several other years. I was able to really absorb the moment and enjoy driving the car.
"You can see the crowd, the weather is fantastic, it was really gusty out there. You can't relax for a minute. It was like the other races I've had here. I don't know why Montreal is so good to me all these years, but I love driving this track. Apart from the long straights, it feels like a go-karting track, I think that brings me back to my roots."
