After a series of crashes in the opening phase of the season, Verstappen arrived in Montreal under pressure to turn around his campaign – and in a defiant mood after rejecting calls for him to change his approach.

But the Dutchman did not put a foot wrong as he was quickest in practice sessions, qualified on the second row and then finished on the podium.

Reflecting on the Red Bull driver's performance, Rosberg believed that Verstappen benefited from the Hamilton characteristic of being able to deliver his best when he is angry.

"Verstappen – epic weekend," said Rosberg on his official YouTube channel. "He showed a bit of Lewis Hamilton attitude to me this weekend.

"When Lewis is angry, he is at his best. He channels it into an unbelievable performance and I think Verstappen had some of that this weekend, so he gained this extra focus from the word go.

"He was first all the way through [practice], great qualifying, and finished third. I think that was a really good weekend from him."

While Verstappen's performance was a high, Rosberg suggested that Hamilton appeared to lack a bit of motivation as he came home fifth.

"Lewis – he had one of those off-weekends totally," said the German. "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."