The 37-year-old landed in Montreal and headed straight out to buy an old Sega Genesis console.
Hamilton has been struggling with back pain since last weekend’s Azerbaijan GP due to his car’s porpoising issues.
The Mercedes star has been put through a gruelling recovery regime in a bid to be fit this weekend, but was afforded some time to relax after touching down in Canada.
And Hamilton revealed to his near 29million Instagram followers that the first thing he did after arriving was pay a visit to a retro game shop.
He bought himself a Saga Genesis, a console first released in 1989, with a racing game to go with it.
Captioning a video of himself enjoying a gaming session, Hamilton wrote: “I landed in Montreal and went straight to a retro game shop.
“Got myself a Sega Genesis and of course, Ayrton Senna’s Super Monaco GP II. I loved this game as a kid and still do now. Still holds up!”
Hamilton’s competitive streak runs through racing on the track for real to his gaming, with the Brit admitting he took the video game extremely seriously.
He continued: “Naturally I got super competitive with myself. My personal best right now is a 49 second lap,
pretty sure I can beat that tho.”That was only after a few tries. I’ll let you all know when I beat it.”
There had been fears after Hamilton finished an impressive P4 in Baku that he could miss the race in Montreal due to his injury.
He was pictured clutching his back in agony after gingerly clambering out of his car.
But physiotherapist Angela Cullen, who has been working with Hamilton since 2016, has managed to get Hamilton fighting fit for the ninth race of the F1 calendar.
Practice one in Montreal gets away later today.
