After Ferrari's Charles Leclerc retired from the lead at Paul Ricard, Hamilton moved up to second place, which he kept until the finish, crossing the line 10 seconds behind Red Bull's winner Max Verstappen .

Afterwards Hamilton, who had to take a breather in the cool-down room, revealed his drinks bottle didn't work during the race, which made his drive in the sweltering hot conditions to his season-best result even tougher.

"What amazing weather we've had, and that was actually a tough race because my drinks bottle didn't work," Hamilton said.

"But what a great result considering we've been so far off these guys all weekend.

"Reliability is one thing that my team has been amazing at, so a huge congratulations to the team back in the two factories, the team here who without them, w

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