Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton reflect on F1 Canadian GP podium which had three of champions.

Verstappen, Alonso and Hamilton –  two WDC, two WDC and seven WDC – it was quite a podium in F1 Canadian GP.  It really was a champions day and what a day it was for the race winner; victory number 41 matching Ayrton Senna and win number 100 for Red Bull.

It was a great race, a flat out one and the perfect result with the only world champions on the grid securing the three podium spots. 10 years ago, Alonso and Hamilton were fighting it out while Verstappen was Karting and for them it was an iconic moment indeed.

“10 years ago, I was not on the grid, so… Nah, I remember, back in the day, I was watching these two already in Formula 1 racing each other, right,” said Verstappen. “So, of course, very happy now that I’m in Formula 1 as well and racing them is probably the best thing out there”.

“When we can share a podium together – I think we’ve done it now a few times? – I think it’s great. I think of course they want to swap positions, of course. I’m happy in the middle at the moment,” summed up Verstappen, with Alonso concurring the happy moment after a respectful drive from all.

“I mean, it’s good, it’s great,” said Alonso. “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 not anything that will benefit. It’s a very intense battle, very fair, very respectful, even in the overtaking possibility that we had on 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 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,” summed up Alonso, with Hamilton backing the duo by praising their careers.

“Not much more to add, but I agree with Fernando, it’s a privilege to be up here fighting these two who’ve done incredible in their careers,” said Hamilton. “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”.

“But yeah, so hopefully there’ll be more and hopefully, as Fernando said, 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, I think in the future,” summed up Hamilton.

 

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