Lewis Hamilton has reassured fans he will be able to race at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.
The Briton was left in agony after Sunday's race in Baku, with porpoising causing his back to slam into the ground repeatedly throughout the Grand Prix. He struggled to get out of his car after, and later said the pain was "100 times worse" than it had looked.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had declared that the seven-time world champion was a doubt to make the trip to Canada this weekend over injury concerns. But Hamilton has now declared that will not be the case, telling fans on social media that he will travel to Montreal and intends to race.
"Good morning world," he wrote on his Instagram story on Monday. "Yesterday was tough and had some troubles sleeping but have woke up feeling positive today! Back is a little sore and bruised but nothing serious thankfully. I've had acupuncture and physio with Ang [Cullen] and am on the way to my team to work with them on improving.
"We have to keep fighting. No time like the present to pull together and we will. I'll be there this weekend, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Wishing everybody an amazing day and week."
Asked in the immediate aftermath of the Azerbaijan race if Hamilton was a doubt for the Canada race, Wolff had replied: "Yeah definitely. You can see that it is not muscular, it goes properly deep into the spine and there are some consequences. The solution could be to have someone on reserve, which we do at any race."
While a reserve driver will still no doubt be present in Montreal, the Austrian will now be able to rest assured the seven-time world champion feels fit enough to race. He could be in for another painful weekend, though, as the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is another quick track which could cause more porpoising problems.
Meanwhile, Red Bull chief Christian Horner has accused Mercedes of getting their drivers to play up the pain they are experiencing in a bid to force the FIA to make changes to the rules in their favour. Asked what he would do if it were his team suffering so much, he replied: "Tell them to bitch as much as they could over the radio and make as big an issue out of it as they possibly could."
Asked if he felt this is what Mercedes were doing, he elaborated: "Of course it is. Look, it is uncomfortable but there are remedies to that but it is detrimental to the car performance. What is the easiest thing to do? Complain from a safety point of view but each team has a choice.
"If it was a genuine safety concern across the whole grid then it is something that should be looked at but if it is only affecting isolated people or teams, then that is something that the team should potentially deal with."
