Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to his Mercedes team after helping the team score their best result of the 2022 season so far at the French Grand Prix. Though Mercedes had looked off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull during practice and qualifying, Hamilton took his best result of the year with second place, with teammate George Russell finishing third. Hamilton also revealed that he completed the race without a functioning drinks bottle in the intense heat, only adding to the challenge. "What a great result, considering we've been so far off these guys all weekend," Hamilton said of the race at Paul Ricard. "It was actually a tough race because my drinks bottle didn't work. I didn't see my weight just now, but I would imagine I probably [lost] around three kilos [throughout the race]. "Reliability is one thing that my team has been amazing at, so huge congratulations to the team back at the two factories, and the team here, without [whom] we couldn't get this podium. "George did an amazing job today as well."
Hamilton hopeful of closing in at Budapest
Hamilton's second place is his fourth consecutive podium finish, and the Briton is hopeful of further closing the gap to the leading contenders at next week's Hungarian Grand Prix, a race he has won eight times previously. "It's going to be hard to beat the Ferraris and the Red Bulls," said Hamilton. "You see they have the pace advantage still, but I'm hoping we will bring some sort of upgrade to that track, and hopefully take a step forward closer to them. "You can see, in the race, we can at least lean on them a little bit, so hopefully in that race [we'll be] even closer."
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