Lewis Hamilton was relieved just to finish the Canadian Grand Prix after nursing an engine issue for much of the race.
Hamilton had held on to fourth position at the start but an overheating engine and intermittent losses of power prompted Mercedes to pit him earlier than planned. This early stop allowed Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to get ahead of him and Hamilton was never able to get close enough to pass the Australian late on.
His main rival for the title, Sebastian Vettel, claimed a third win of the season and reclaimed the lead of the drivers' championship, but Hamilton was focused on the bigger picture.
"I'm super grateful that I finished,'' Hamilton told Sky Sports when asked how he felt about finishing only fifth in Canada. "I'm just so happy that I finished. From the start, all of a sudden I was down on power and my engine was saying it was over-temperature and I couldn't get the temperatures down.
"I just thought it was going to fail and every single lap I was just on the edge waiting for that power to drop away. It kept dropping and coming back and dropping and I was like 'jeez'. It was the seventh race on the engine so it's saw its life. I could have lost a lot more today.''
Hamilton acknowledges Ferrari has the stronger package at the moment but he is confident of bouncing back in the coming rounds with Mercedes' upgraded power unit set to debut in the next round in France.
"I think Ferrari have had a slightly better package all round, they've been doing a slightly better job so we've got to do more. We've got to keep working, which I know the guys are, and I just think we need to stay positive.
"There's no reason to lose control. We just keep doing what we are doing, keep our heads down, keep motivated and keep pushing because they will falter. We need to keep applying the pressure, we didn't this weekend but I'm really going to make sure we come back stronger at the next race.''