MONTREAL, Canada -- Lewis Hamilton says his pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix shows how hard Mercedes is being made to work in the fight against Ferrari.

Ferrari topped FP2 and FP3 in Montreal before Mercedes fought back in qualifying, with Hamilton turning in a remarkable sequence of laps in Q3 to claim pole from Sebastian Vettel by 0.3s. Mercedes came to Canada after a difficult week in Monaco, where both drivers finished off the podium, and has been inconsistent in its performances throughout 2017.

Hamilton thinks the qualifying performance in Canada shows how well it is responding to the challenge.

When asked how much Ferrari is pushing Mercedes, Hamilton said: "I think I would say more... It's a little bit more so perhaps for us because we are having a car that is not working everywhere. It's a great car but it's a trickier car to set up.

"It appears from the outside that the Ferrari generally is easier [to set up] -- whilst they're still working hard -- it works everywhere, so it seems. If they're the same level and we're more up and down all the time, for sure it puts a lot of emphasis on us just pulling together more than ever."

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Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, the year before the introduction of V6 turbos, an era the team completely dominated until this season. Despite the success of the previous three seasons Hamilton believes the new challenge has been perfect for team harmony.

"I think as a team we've been closer and more united than we've ever been. We've been utilizing every engineer to the absolute max and utilizing everyone's abilities, which is key.

"In the five years I've been with this team I've never seen such great teamwork and communication, we're all just talking more than ever and it's great today to be able to see the fruits of that hard work and it's not just chat for nothing. It's going to continue to be a tough, tough, tough race between the Ferraris because they are so strong, and [in qualifying] we've shown we can have an answer if we do the right things."