Lewis Hamilton says its awesome to fight with one of the greats after battle with Max Verstappen in Canada

Aside from the intense battle between Mercedes teammates George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in the Canadian Grand Prix, which ended with the former breaking down, Hamilton and Verstappen also had their own tussle, which served as another highlight of the race, also reminding us of their bitter fights back in 2021 - they were both smiling this time though...

"It was awesome," Hamilton responded when asked to reflect on the battle with Verstappen. "Absolutely awesome to fight with one of the greats.

"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. 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 I love that hunt," the Ferrari driver went on. "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. So, it was amazing to be back in that position and hunting down a champion up ahead.

"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 the overtake, they still have more power in the straights. So, finding a way, I was just having to do these calculations, trying to figure out how to maximize the amount of power on my battery bar each straight and make sure that I have enough at that particular point.

"And, yeah, thank God I managed to pull it off. And it's a great feeling when you overtake as well. So, these cars are awesome to be able to follow," he concluded.

Sitting next to Hamilton in the post-race press conference, Verstappen gave his view of the battle; he said: "Yeah, it was very good. I enjoyed it a lot.

"I think also when you are within a second at this track, we are very energy poor around here, and of course when you are within a second, you're allowed to spend a bit more energy, so then on the straights, of course, you gain a bit of speed, and around here that is very efficient, actually.

"So, yeah, the last few laps I tried to get back, but it was good. I mean, we're pushing flat out, and, yeah, was just very nice for me.

"Also, I think it's my first race where I basically had a normal race, nothing crazy happened, so that's also nice," Verstappen concluded.