F1: Paul Di Resta is left deflated in Montreal

While McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton became the seventh winner in the opening seven grands prix, Di Resta finished 11th.

“It’s obviously not what we envisaged after we qualified the car eighth on the grid,” the 26-year-old Scot, whose team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finished 12th, admitted. “I think everyone in the team was disappointed not to score any points, especially after I made such a good start.

“I managed to ease my way past the Lotus of Romain Grosjean after the first two or three corners. Then, as the first round of pit stops unfolded, I found myself fifth. But after that, the race sort of unfolded.

“I seemed to suffer with some high tyre degradation on the super-softs so we pitted quite early, but on the soft tyres we just didn’t have the performance and we slipped back.

“It’s a missed opportunity, but sometimes you get weekends like this.”

Hamilton meanwhile was back to his impressive best as he wrestled his McLaren to an impressive victory, five years after he won the first grand prix of his F1 career on the same Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The Englishman made his second stop for new Pirelli tyres on lap 49 of the scheduled 70, on the 2.7-mile circuit, from the lead. He rejoined the circuit third, 13 seconds behind the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull.

Undaunted, the former world champ rattled off a series of searing laps to rapidly close the gap on the two leaders who attempted to do the race on just one stop. First he cruised past Vettel —who then made a late pit stop and finished fourth, having started from pole — before romping past Alonso in the closing laps.

Alonso was also passed by Grosjean, who finished second, and the Sauber of Sergio Perez. The Mexican completed the podium line-up, while Alonso was relegated to fifth.

Hamilton heads to Valencia for the European Grand Prix in a fortnight leading the championship by two points from Alonso, with Vettel one point further adrift.