Lewis Hamilton's huge Ducati maintenance bill revealed as F1 legend drives motorbike to Canadian GP

The Ducati motorbike driven by Lewis Hamilton to the Canadian Grand Prix has a huge maintenance bill.

Hamilton qualified fifth for the Grand Prix in Montreal, a track at which he won his first-ever F1 race back in 2007.

The seven-time world champion out-qualified team-mate Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque driver made an error on his final lap.

Hamilton, who has had a record 104 pole positions during his Formula 1 career, has largely struggled in qualifying for the past 12 months but there have been encouraging signs in recent races.

Perhaps his performance was marginally helped by driving a Ducati Panigale V4 motorbike to the Montreal paddock on Saturday.

Although both companies share the same paint scheme, are both Italian and have collaborated with each other in the past, Ducati and Ferrari are separate entities.

Ducati compete in MotoGP, the elite level of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and have won the Constructors' Championship in each of the past five seasons.

Their luxury Panigale road bike is not one of the most expensive on the market, though can come in at a cool $30,000 when bought new.

And its maintenance bill can add significant costs.

According to BikeBound, insurance costs for the Panigale V4 can come in at around $1,600 to $2,000, though it would not be a surprise if Hamilton would have needed to pay even more given his status as an elite athlete.

But what sets Ducati bikes apart from other brands on the market is their unique Desmodromic valve system, which is part of the engine.

Put simply, the system reduces power consumption and can increase engine speed and revolutions, because it uses a second arm to lift the valve closed instead of a spring.

The Desmo system needs to be serviced at every 15,000 miles driven or two years, with some users reporting that the service cost can be close to $2,500.

While that may not necessarily be within Hamilton's range given how much he likely drives the motorbike away from F1, he will still need to pay other service costs.

Ducati also recommend an oil change every 7,500 miles - which may be more in Hamilton's mileage range - and this can come in at anywhere up to $500.

In addition, there are also a number of additional accessories (via Topspeed) that can be purchased with the bike - including carbon wheels, a full-system race exhaust and coloured brake calipers - that can take the cost well over $50,000 if all are bought.