Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton says he is excited about the prospect of having a “real race” against Ferrari’s Sebaꦓstian Vettel in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver missed out on taking a record se🐻venth po𓄧le position in Montreal as Vettel beat him by 0.206s to claim his first pole in 17 races - a run stretching back to last year’s German Grand Prix.

Hamilton remained upbeat despite failing to secure ꦉpole, with Mercedes hopeful about its race-day chances, having shown some promising race-pace throughout the weekend so far.

Speaking after qualifying, Hamilton said: “All weekend they’ve had really great pace and for a large part of it they were six tenths up on the straights, so we fought so hard throughout the weekend to make im﷽provements.

“I’m actually really happy fo🍰r Seb, he clearly did a really great lap. My first lap was really good and it felt great for a second to be on pole, particularly as I missed all of P2 yesterday (Friday), so quite far behind starting today (Satur🗹day) but it’s been a real solid day from us.

“It’s a very, very short distance down to Turn 1 so it’s not the easiest to make places up but it’s a long, lꦦong race, so 70 lap🌳s is a long way to go.

“Of course, whatever opportunity comes we will try to capitalise on it but yeah, the race is very long, probably a one stop so looking🌜 after the tyres is going to be really key.

“It’s very hard to 💝follow here, even though there’s mainly straights, they are very quick on the straights so I don’t know how following Seb is going to be - if I’m in that position.

“I just hope that we are able to🍸 be close and have 🌌a real race throughout the race.”

Hamilton does not believe a m🐻istake at the hairpin - which cost him time in the final sector on his final flying effort in Q3 - ultimately made the difference in missing out on po👍le.

“It wasn’t frustration it’s justꦫ, you know, the team rely on me,” H🧜amilton replied when asked about his apology to Mercedes over team radio.

“It was a good lap but it was not g💫ood enough obviously. I had two really solid laps, no mistakes and I’m generally really happy with the job I did.

“Of course you can go back to the drawing board and say there’s always going to be a little bit more time in it but I d🎀on’t think I had two-and-a-half tenths, what th🌺ey had or whatever it was.

“We just have to keep pushing, keep fighting,” he added. “We’re still in💫 a strong position. But I think this is great for racing anyway. I think this is what we anಞd what the fans want, to see us so close.

“If you looks at the top 15 or something there was around a second between us all. That’s really great to see. Everyone’s so close at this track and hopefully that provides good racinꩵg.”