Wolff not confirming Hamilton-Shakira rumours

Toto Wolff passed the buck when asked if Lewis Hamilton has begun to date the 46-year-old Colombian pop star Shakira.

"I don’t know anything about that," the Mercedes team boss told Osterreich newspaper.

When told that Shakira was recently in the team’s Formula 1 garage, Wolff smiled: "I didn’t see anything. I was just looking at my screen."

On the track, things are also starting to look brighter for Hamilton and Mercedes - as the seven time world champion qualified fourth in Montreal.

But currently soaring almost completely unchallenged at the very top of the sport at present is Canada GP pole sitter Max Verstappen.

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko said the Dutchman’s dominance was particularly obvious on the wet circuit.

"He doesn’t even need a warm-up. He pulls out of the pitlane and where the others need three laps, he doesn’t even need one. Hats off to him," he told Sky Deutschland.

And with the surprise front-row sitter Nico Hulkenberg subsequently shunted down the grid with a penalty, Marko admits Sunday’s race should be yet another win for Verstappen.

"As it looks like it at the moment, it will be Alonso again," he said when asked who the two-time champion’s biggest challenger will be.