Lewis Hamilton 'needed' Canada win after Monaco disappointment

Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton admitted he "needed" victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, after his fourth victory in seven races so far this season.

Hamilton lost an apparently certain win in the previous race in Monaco because of a team strategy error and was determined to make amends in Montreal.

"Did I need this? I think so," he said after his dominant win.

His win extends his lead to 17 points. Team-mate Nico Rosberg had cut it to 10 after inheriting the Monaco win.

"I don't feel I needed to be relieved," he said.

"I was quickest all of the previous race weekend as well.

"Obviously we had the problem which enabled Nico to win the race but otherwise, generally I had good pace for the last two races so it's not a relief, it just feels good to continue with good strength and it's great that the team is continuing to be strong as well and continue to move forwards.

"That's probably the most impressive thing."

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said the team had been through a difficult fortnight because of the criticism they received for the error in Monaco, which has led to a reassessment of how they make major strategic decisions in races.

Rosberg acknowledged that he had inherited the win in Monaco

"After Monaco it was very difficult for the team to handle it," Wolff said. "We were exposed to massive criticism.

"It looked like all the victories and world championships were forgotten and suddenly a bunch of idiots were managing the team.

"And then when he had some ups and downs in the team. The result is satisfying after what happened in Monaco."

Mercedes appeared to have retained their advantage over Ferrari despite the Italian team bringing an upgraded engine to Canada after using three of their permitted 10 in-season development tokens, ascribed to different parts of the engine on a performance-related basis.

Hamilton and Rosberg, who finished a close second, were under no real threat in the race from Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, who was running third before a spin caused by an engine problem dropped him to fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen spun after engine problems

But Hamilton said it would be wrong to jump to conclusions because Ferrari's lead driver Sebastian Vettel had to start from the back following engine problems in qualifying and a penalty for infringing safety regulations.

Vettel finished fifth and is now 43 points - with 25 for a win - behind Hamilton in the championship with 12 races remaining.

Asked whether he was more relaxed now that the title fight appeared to be himself and Rosberg, Hamilton said: "It's pretty much impossible for you to come to that conclusion because Kimi spun so we didn't really get to see his true pace in the race.

"Sebastian wasn't there and obviously Sebastian has generally been the quicker of the two so far this season so we didn't really get to see Ferrari's true pace this weekend, I think, and in the next race we will."

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