was left 'devastated' after the when he was informed that he ran over a groundhog. The Brit lost '20 points' of downforce after the incident caused damage to the underbody of his Ferrari machine. The contact, which occurred on lap 13 of Sunday's race, put a dent in Hamilton's chances of delivering a strong result.

The Brit started fifth, joining career-long rival Fernando Alonso on the third row, but finished in sixth when the chequered flag dropped, behind team-mate Charles Leclerc. "It was feeling pretty decent up until then," the seven-time world champion told Sky Sports F1 after climbing out of the cockpit. "I got a good start, held position, I was holding on to the group, I was managing the tyres well, so I was feeling optimistic.

"And then, I didn't see it happen, but obviously I heard I hit a groundhog. So that's devastating. I love animals, and I'm so sad about it. That's horrible. That's never happened to me here before."

As well as the emotional turmoil, the contact had a sporting penalty. "The floor, basically, the right side has a hole in it and all the vanes are gone," Hamilton continued.

"So given that, then we had a brake issue halfway through as well, and then we stayed out probably too long in the first [pit] stop and came out behind traffic and just went from one thing to another. So I'm grateful that I could just finish, particularly with the brake issue I had, and bag those points."

While Hamilton and Leclerc did well to deliver a clean race under challenging conditions, they lost ground to rivals Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship battle. George Russell sealed a pole-to-flag victory for the Silver Arrows, while Kimi Antonelli scored his maiden F1 podium.

The same could not be said for championship leaders McLaren, though. with mere laps remaining, taking him out of the race and putting a huge dent in his championship dreams.

"No one to blame but myself, so I apologise to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something probably a bit too silly," he said after stepping out of the cockpit. "Glad I didn't ruin his race. In the end, apologies to the team."