On his debut race at Montreal's Gilles Villeneuve circuit, Hamilton held off BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld and dealt with the safety car being deployed on four occasions to emphasise his bright talent and return to the top of the championship.
It was McLaren's second win in a row after Spaniard Fernando Alonso's victory at Monaco, and their third of the season and 151st in total.
After six races so far this season, Hamilton has finished on the podium all sic times which is a record for a rookie, but it is his maiden victory that will have delighted him the most.
Germany's Alex Wurz of Williams was third ahead of Finns Heikki Kovalainen of Renault and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
When the lights went green Hamilton was forced to desperately defend from Alonso and Heidfield who charged into second.
Heidfeld's fast start forced Alonso to slide on to the grass but he managed to return to the track in third place while Hamilton immediately set about opening up a large lead and had some luck as he emerged from his first pit stop just seconds before the first safety car was deployed when the Spyker of German Adrian Sutil slid into a wall.
Kubica's crash
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Robert Kubica of Poland got away with just a
broken leg after this crash [GALLO/GETTY] |
When the racing resumed Hamilton led from Heidfeld and Alonso but there was little time for overtaking as Poland's Robert Kubica slid off the circuit and crashed into a wall causing another yellow flag.
Kubica's BMW Sauber flew across the track and barrel rolled before hitting another wall on the other side of the tarmac, with the Polish driver thankfully later confirmed to be in a conscious stable condition with a leg injury.
Racing began again after 33 laps and Hamilton set about restoring a good margin from Heidfeld with Australia's Mark Webber third in a Red Bull.
Hamilton and Heidfeld pitted for a second time after 48 laps and the Englishman was able to re-emerge over nine seconds ahead of Webber, but his lead was again reined in by the safety car after 50 laps.
Fisichella and Massa black-flagged
During this period the race was ended for Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault and Felipe Massa's Ferrari who were each shown black flags for exiting the pits on a red light.
The safety car withdrew with 16 laps to go with Hamilton still in front from Heidfeld but Vitantiono Liuzzi soon crashed in his Torro Rosso and drew another yellow flag.
Now just ten laps remained and Hamilton again began to open up a gap from Heidfeld, in a final stint that saw the Brit take the chequered flag 4.3 seconds ahead of the German.