Lewis Hamilton was six tenths of a second off the pace during Friday practice in Canada, Mercedes has delayed the engine upgrade originally planned for this race, and Pirelli has allocated the softest of its three tyre compounds that the Silver Arrows has often struggled to get the best out of.

On paper, that sounds like bad news for Hamilton's hopes of taking a record-equalling seventh victory in Montreal. But dig deeper and it's clear that, actually, Hamilton and Mercedes are shaping up strongly for this weekend.

First and foremost, the headline lap times of both Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas were misleading. Neither used the hypersofts, thanks to the desire to save all five sets for Saturday and Sunday, and Hamilton's time was actually set on the slowest tyre compound.

About Edd Straw

Edd Straw is a former Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Autosport, who is now Motorsport Network’s Digital Content Manager.

Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, he joined Autosport in 2002 having graduated from Warwick University. He went on to cover a wide range of categories from club motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship and Le Mans to Formula 3 before switching to F1 full-time at the 2008 French Grand Prix. He then became Autosport Magazine Editor in November 2014.

After becoming Editor-in-Chief of Autosport in June 2016, he took up his current wider Motorsport Network role in October the following year and continues to contribute as a writer, F1 correspondent and as host of The Autosport Podcast.

In his spare time, he was formerly a club racer whose abilities did not match his enthusiasm in a variety of categories ranging from Stock Hatch to the European Ferrari Challenge.