Lewis Hamilton didn’t look his usual self at the Canada Grand Prix, that’s for sure.

The Mercedes driver started fourth on the grid in Montreal - where he earned pole and won for the previous three straight years.

After being out-qualified by teammate Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton was never likely to maintain his dominance at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

His unfavourable position was compounded by his engine developing a temperature problem from the beginning of the race, forcing him to make an extra pit stop and sacrifice power to open extra cooling ducts.

That, it seems, had Hamilton wondering if he would even cross the finish line, let alone just two places off the podium.

"It could have been a lot worse. I could have lost a lot more points,” he said, per BBC Sport.

"I was waiting for it to let go. I am incredibly grateful it kept going."

The weekend saw the reigning world champion lose top spot in the driver rankings to Sebastian Vettel after the German claimed his first win since Bahrain.

Hamilton has lost 18 points to his Ferrari rival in the past two races, meaning only a single point separating them as things stand.

In response to losing that much ground in his bid to clinch a fifth individual title, he said: “That is a lot.

"Ferrari have been doing the better job, particularly this month and their whole package has just been a little bit ahead of us. Their whole package has just been a little bit ahead of ours. We have to do more and keep pushing, hopefully there are some good things to come."

Nico Rosberg, however, believes Hamilton’s struggle to maintain consistency this term isn’t down to his team and shouldn’t come as a surprise, either.

Based on his time alongside the Brit at Mercedes between 2013 and 2016, the 32-year-old has a theory about why his former colleague endures patches of poor form.

Speaking about his display in Montreal on his YouTube channel, Rosberg said: “Lewis - he had one of those off-weekends totally.

“Okay, he had an engine thing in the race, but even so qualifying was still off. Typical for Lewis - these phases where he loses a bit of motivation when things don't go well.”

It’s difficult to know what to make of Rosberg’s comments, but irrespectively, Hamilton can’t afford to fall much further behind Vettel.