Lewis Hamilton says it was a privilege to be able to race Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen and believes they made for an “iconic top three” at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen won his 41st race in Montreal to move level with Ayrton Senna on the all-time list, but he still a long way adrift of Hamilton’s record of 103. The Mercedes driver was left battling former championship rival Alonso for second and ended up finishing third after a close fight; something he said was special to be able to do after all three have had such successes.
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“It’s a privilege to be up here fighting these two who’ve done incredible in their careers,” Hamilton said. “And this is quite an iconic top three. I don’t know if there’s been a top three like this ever before. I don’t believe there has.
“So hopefully there’ll be more, and there’s a lot of respect between us as we were able to race so closely and trust in one another. I’m really hoping at some stage we have more of a level playing field in our cars, and then we’ll have a much more exciting race in the future.”
Alonso also had words of praise for Hamilton after overtaking the seven-time world champion and then holding him off in the closing stage of Sunday’s race.
“It’s great,” he said. “I really enjoy these battles and these podiums. It happened in Australia, I think last time and now here, and there is a lot of respect, a lot of talent. When you fight against Max, Lewis, you know that you cannot make a mistake because they will take advantage of that, and they will not make a mistake. So, if you want to beat them, you need to be tenth-after-tenth, fastest to close that gap.
“It’s a very intense battle, very fair, very respectful, even in the overtaking possibility that we had with the DRS – for me when I passed Lewis – you know that you can trust what he’s doing: he will defend hard but within the limits. I guess the same at the start, when you start in the first two rows with these guys, you know that there’s a sense of awareness and respect that it’s not sometimes in other parts.”