Lewis Hamilton confirms he’ll be fit for Canadian Grand Prix despite ‘most painful race’ in Baku
Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he will race at the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend despite suffering back pain from excessive “bouncing” at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton described the Baku race as “the most painful I’ve ever experienced” after the ‘porpoising’ along the long and bumpy straights left the 37-year-old “praying” for the finish line.
The Mercedes driver finished fourth but looked in discomfort upon exiting his car, raising concerns that he could be forced to miss the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend in what is a back-to-back.
But in an update on Monday, Hamilton said he had woken up feeling “positive” after receiving treatment from his physiotherapist Angela Cullen and said he would not be missing the Montreal race.
“Yesterday was tough and had some troubles sleeping but have woke up feeling positive today,” Hamilton said on Instagram. “Back is a little sore and bruised but nothing serious thankfully. I’ve had acupuncture and physio with Ang and am on the way to my team to work with them on improving.
“We have to keep fighting. No time like the present to pull together and we will. I’ll be there this weekend, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
In a previous post on social media on Sunday night, Hamilton had said: “Seeing online that a lot of people are concerned about me with how awful it looked out there. I’ll be honest it looks terrible and feels 100 times worse.
“Definitely some recovering and hard work with the team to do before Montreal to overcome this hurdle. Feeling better already, though, and motivated me to keep pushing.”
Hamilton’s Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made the alarming admission about his superstar driver moments after Sunday’s contest on the streets of Baku which was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“Yes, definitely, ” said Wolff, when asked if there is a danger Hamilton, 37, will not be able to compete in Montreal. “He is really bad. You can see this is not muscular anymore. It goes properly into the spine and it can have some consequences.
“The solution could be to have someone on reserve, which we anyway have at every race.”
