Lewis Hamilton returned to the scene of his maiden Formula One victory today and admitted he still was amazed he had won last year's Canadian Grand Prix.
The McLaren-Mercedes driver regained the lead in the world drivers' championship two weeks ago with the sixth grands prix win of his short career at Monaco.
Now he is back at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the place where he scored a first pole position and a maiden win following a remarkable start to his career that had reaped five podium positions in his first five races.
Hamilton emerged victorious from an incident-strewn race in Montreal 12 months ago that had seen his lead repeatedly cut by the deployment of the safety car.
"I got my first pole position and I was happy with that but I wanted to convert it to a win," Hamilton said as his team prepared for tomorrow's first practice session.
"Then I had all these safety cars pull out and I had this big gap, safety car would come out and then another gap and another safety car and so I was thinking 'Am I really supposed to be winning this race?'
"But I still managed to pull it off - it was a spectacular win and I was thrilled about it.
"To have my first grand prix win in my first grand prix season and after such consistent races beforehand, even now, looking back on last year, I don't even know how I did it. It's so hard to be consistent."
Hamilton said his maiden victory confirmed to his rivals that he was a force to be reckoned with in Formula One.
He continued: "You can believe you can do it but actually doing it and making it happen is a different thing.
"It showed people I was here to do business, and prove to myself that it is possible.
"And it has just sort of opened that doorway and I was able to win from then on.
"I think in confidence terms, I was confident already and building my confidence race after race, with more and more podiums.
"I think they started to realise that I was a real threat. I had already had a couple of good races and I think by then they were like 'maybe he is for real - and he is a real competitor'."
Hamilton begins his bid to score back-to-back victories in Canada with a three-point lead over his nearest championship rival, world champion Kimi Raikkonen, having returned to the top spot with his first win in Monaco.
The Englishman celebrated what he has called the greatest moment in his career both with family at home and in Los Angeles with friends before travelling east to Montreal.
He explained: "After every race I try and get over it quickly but I had time to enjoy it with my family, then I went to LA with a couple of friends - and then from there I came straight here.
"I still did my training and enjoyed some nice weather in the States and it was a really good time."
He rejoins a McLaren Mercedes team he says has been given a big confidence boost by the Monaco victory following a lean spell since his win in the season opener in Australia.
A fifth place in Malaysia was followed by a 13th in Bahrain before the corner was turned with a third in Spain and runner-up finish in Turkey.
Hamilton said: "It's nice for me but I don't think it makes much of a difference to be honest.
"We'd already had a couple of strong races and not for me, but for the team it will make a big difference.
"The guys had been working so hard and they deserved it more than anyone.
"For me, I don't really need a confidence boost. It was nice to have the win for sure but I'm not going to get overly excited about it."
Hamilton is also unworried after his fathers was involved in an accident at home o Wednesday
Anthony Hamilton escaped unharmed after crashing his Ј330,000 Porsche Carrera GT in Welwyn Garden City - and Hamilton junior said simply: "As far as I know he's fine."
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