Lewis Hamilton hopes Mercedes will be ‘cautious on experiments’ after Canadian Grand Prix podium

Lewis Hamilton hopes Mercedes will cut down on future “experiments” on the car after he finished third at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Seven-time champion Hamilton has endured a difficult start to the season largely due to porpoising and bouncing issues which seem to have affected Mercedes worse than most teams.

It was the first time that Hamilton had finished ahead of team-mate George Russell since the opening day of the season.

Asked after the race if there was light at the end of the tunnel, Hamilton replied with a smile: “Maybe the second half of the season George can do the experiments!

“We’re just trying to work…we’re just trying to progress as a team. Moving forward, I think we’ll be a little bit more cautious on doing too many experiments as it really does hinder you through the weekend, especially if you only have practice one and two in the dry and don’t get a FP3, for example.

“I think there are lots of learnings from this weekend and improvements that we can make moving forwards.”

Hamilton and Russell have both used different set-ups at times as Mercedes have looked to get to the bottom of the issues with the car.

Hamilton says he hopes to be in the “battle” with pace-setters Red Bull and Ferrari at the British Grand Prix, which is on July 3, and beyond.

“I really hope moving to Silverstone, it is such an important race for us and for me and I really hope that… I just want to be in the battle with these guys.

“When the safety car came in and we started again, the dream was to keep in that battle with them and find a way, but they were rapid. We will get there eventually

“I think we’re better in medium and high-speed corners probably, than we are in the low-speed corners but we have bouncing, so I don’t know how it’s going to be through Copse and all those places.”

Hamilton is sixth in the drivers’ championship on 77 points, two places and 34 points behind Russell, who is the only driver to have finished in the top five in every race this season.