A triumphant Lewis Hamilton believes he has dealt a major blow to Sebastian Vettel's championship challenge after storming to victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.

On the anniversary of his very first victory here at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve a decade ago, Hamilton slashed Vettel's 25-point advantage in the title race to just 12.

Vettel's afternoon was scuppered by a first-corner incident with Max Verstappen which forced him to stop for a new front wing, and with it, fall to the back of the field.

The Ferrari driver recovered to finish fourth - which included two overtaking moves in the closing laps - while Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in second to complete Mercedes' first one-two finish of the season. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo claimed the final spot on the podium.

But this was Hamilton's day and the perfect retort after he toiled to only seventh at the Monaco Grand Prix a fortnight ago.

Hamilton - still fresh from sealing the 65th pole position of his career which drew him level with the tally of his boyhood hero Ayrton Senna - led every lap in a masterful display at a track which has been so kind to him over the years.

"It has been an incredible weekend and I couldn't be happier," Hamilton said after recording his sixth win in Canada. "The team came away from Monaco scratching their hands, but everyone just wanted to work and pull together, which we did.

"I don't think in the five years at this team, they have pulled together so well, really work towards the same cause, and to understand the car.

"To come here and to deliver what we have delivered is a great blow to the Ferraris."

Hamilton's afternoon stroll was made all that much easier when Vettel, who started alongside the Mercedes man on the front row, was left fighting for fourth on the short dash to turn one.

Vettel was not particularly slow out of the starting blocks, but as Bottas dived underneath the German, and Max Verstappen raced around the outside, the driver who had finished either first or second at every round of the season so far, was suddenly on the back foot.

Matters got worse at the end of lap five, when Vettel was hauled into the pits for repairs to his front wing. TV replays showed that the fast-starting Verstappen, who later retired with technical gremlins, had nicked the nose of the Ferrari at Turn One, but the stewards took no action.

Plum last in the pack, the championship leader began picking off his opponents and by lap 22 he was up to eighth. Vettel then pitted for fresh rubber at the end of lap 49, and with 20 laps to go began to hunt down Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who in turn was chasing Ricciardo and the impressive Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.

A glitch for Raikkonen promoted Vettel to sixth, before he took fifth position after Ocon ran off the road at Turn One with four laps remaining. Vettel then passed Perez on the penultimate lap for fourth.

For Hamilton, who crossed the line 20 seconds clear of Bottas, he will now head to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with his championship charge firmly back on track.

"It is kind of crazy to think I had my first pole position and grand prix win here 10 years ago," Hamilton added. "It felt very reminiscent of 2007 in terms of how the race went.

"I did not do a great restart after the safety car went in, but once I got on to the main straight it was all under control from there. It is a long race, particularly when you are out there on your own. You are hoping the car held together, and it did."