Verstappen took full advantage of main title rival Charles Leclerc’s crash out of the lead Sunday’s French Grand Prix to extend his championship advantage to 63 points and take a massive step towards winning his second world titl๊e.

It marked the reigning world champion’s seventh victory from 12 races this season and he has now moved more than two wins♚ clear of Leclerc with 10 rac💙es remaining.   

After finishing a strong second, Hamilton - who lost out on the 2021 world title to Verstappen in last year’s controversial season finale in A💖bu Dhabi - said he empathise🐠d with Leclerc after the Monegasque took full responsibility for his race-ending accident. 

“I’m gutted for Charles, who’s been doing a great job, as has Carlos,” said💮 Hamilton. 

“It’s not easy though, having that pace and that performance and maintaining it. It's a tough job and I feel for the whole team because I know what that can feel like. But they're a great team, and they'll continue to keep their heaꦍds down. 

“[It’s a] massiv𒁃e gap, obviously pretty huge, so that's pretty smooth sailing in that space generally. But a lot still can go wꦬrong up ahead so I would just advise them just to continue to push.”  

Verstappen: F1 title lead ‘bigger than it should be’ 

🍨Leclerc has now retired from the ✱lead on three occasions this season, with two of his DNFs being caused by engine failures amid a series of Ferrari reliability woes this year. 

Vers𝓰tappen conceded aft💞er the race that his championship lead has been flattered by issues for Leclerc given how evenly matched Ferrari and Red Bull have been throughout the opening half of the season. 

💃"It's still very important to always score points, even on a bad day, which we did in Austria," said Verstappen.

"Of course the lead we have is great, but it's probably a bit bigger than what it should h☂ave been, when you look at the car performances between the two cars.

“We still have a bit of work to do over a single la𝕴p especially, so we'll just keep working.”&n💦bsp;

However, Verstappen was confident he had the pace to beat Lec♚lerc on merit had the Ferrari driver not crashed ou♛t. 

“It looked good from our side,” he added. “I was very happy because I wanted to see immediately if we could follow or not compared to Austria where it was the other way around, where I wa🐼s in the lead but I could barꦺely hold on. 

“But this time I think we were a lot more competitive. Of course, our straightline speed was very beneficial, but because of that, in the high-speed we had to be a bit more 𝕴careful. I stayed in his DRS for quite a while, but of course around here even driving on your own the tyres are already getting really hot. 

“So I think by doing that, towar♊d🃏s the pit stop, my tyres were a bit too hot. That's why I think he pulled away a little bit. 

“But it wasn't anything, like, drastic, the way he was pulling away. So I still had good ho༺pe that we would have had a good fight on the other compound as well.”