Lewis Hamilton will seek to regain the lead in this year’s drivers world championship this weekend when he returns to one of his favourite circuits for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The 29-year-old Briton, who this week declared he had made his peace with Mercedes team-mate and world title rival Nico Rosberg following a tempestuous weekend in Monte Carlo, claimed his maiden Formula One pole and victory in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix.
He added further victories in 2010 and 2012 and finished third at the tight and demanding Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last year, confirmation that his fast reflexive and instinctive driving is well suited to the bumpy and unforgiving street track.
According to Hamilton, his long friendship with German Rosberg has not been damaged seriously by their fall-out at the Monaco Grand Prix, where the Englishman suggested his team-mate had deliberately gone off-track in qualifying to gain an unfair advantage.
In a brief statement on Twitter, he said: “We’ve been friends a long time and as friends we have our ups and downs. Today we spoke and we’re cool, still friends…No problem.”
Since Monaco, where Rosberg ended a run of four Hamilton victories with his second successive triumph on home soil, or asphalt, the Mercedes team have worked hard to control mounting speculation about the drivers’ rivalry.
