“Absolutely awesome” — Hamilton on his wheel‑to‑wheel fight with Verstappen

Having chased down on his old rival Max Verstappen in the dying stages of the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari's seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton labelled his fight with the Dutch driver as "absolutely awesome."

Hamilton’s duel with Max Verstappen in the closing laps was one of the highlights of the Canadian Grand Prix. Asked what it felt like from inside the cockpit, Hamilton lit up: “It was awesome. Absolutely awesome to fight with one of the greats.”

He explained how closely matched the Ferrari and Red Bull were: “It was massively challenging. I think our cars are relatively close, I would say. You see him in qualifying, we were relatively close.

"And I think whilst we’re probably a little bit quicker through the corners, everything you gain in the corner, they gain on the straight.”

Running behind Verstappen was difficult: “And very challenging behind him. Obviously, I lost a bit of time, he was quicker at the beginning of the race and then once he got into the Medium, I was able to hunt him down.”

And that hunt — that chase — is something Hamilton has always loved: “And I love that hunt. That’s my whole life has been about that since a kid, since I had a really old go-kart, I was just always hunting.”

For Hamilton, chasing down a champion felt like a return to his roots: “So, it was amazing to be back in that position and hunting down a champion up ahead.”

Hamilton also revealed how much thinking goes into overtaking when you’re down on power:

“And unbelievably difficult and have to be so strategic when you have less power as well than others around. Even if we have the overtake, even in overtake they still have more power in the straights.”

He described the mental calculations happening at 300 km/h: “So, finding a way, I was just having to do these calculations, trying to figure out how to maximise the amount of power on my battery bar each straight and make sure that I have enough at that particular point.”

In the end, he made it work: “And, yeah, thank God I managed to pull it off. And it’s a great feeling when you overtake as well.”

And he praised the 2026 cars for allowing close racing: “So, these cars are awesome to be able to follow.”