Lewis Hamilton did have the rehydrating bottle connected during the French GP on Sunday, where he finished second, behind Max Verstappen.
That meant the Briton was forced to do the entire race without any fluid intake. After the race, he looked visibly exhausted as he lay down in the cool-down room before the podium ceremony.
Hamilton shared a picture of himself lying down on the floor, sending fans on social media into a frenzy. Here are some of the interesting reactions on Twitter:
"7 times #F1 world champion finally seen chilling after that last season bullshit. Next season, 8th title will be yours dear Lewis "
"Hamilton just quietly chilling in 3rd with no pressure"
"NOOOO HE LOOKS LIKE A BABY"
"Bro was exhausted"
"Well deserved after the shift you put in today, Lewis! Great drive and an excellent result!! #TeamLH"
"Honestly get this car right and no one would see us all race. The pace we would have would be scary I think"
"For sure. Hopefully Budapest can be a strong weekend for us really. There’s no real need for speed. Hopefully we can make good use of the downforce we’ve got on the car. Issue will be trying to overtake if we do have the outright pace if we have a bad qualifying"
"you look so at peace honestly, this is what i would do after a race too tbh"
"Great race today, champ. Congratulations on a remarkable achievement. And your "keep pushing" will always keep reverberating in my ears always. Such a small verse yet so motivational."
"I wasn't expecting to fight for second place" - Lewis Hamilton
After the race at Paul Ricard, Lewis Hamilton admitted he wasn't expecting to fight for second place, which came as a welcome surprise.
Nevertheless, the result was a testimony of the kind of effort Mercedes had put in, with their other driver - George Russell - also finishing in the podium. Hamilton said after the race:
"What a great result, considering we have been so far off all weekend and that I missed FP1. I wasn't expecting to fight for second place or a podium, so this is a wonderful result for us. Our team has been amazing when it comes to reliability, and it shows that with dedication and focus, we can slowly make our way up."
He continued:
"We don't have the same pace yet as the two teams at the front, but today we were able to keep one of them at bay so a great result for us, everyone has worked really hard. Huge congratulations to the teams back at the factories and the team here. Without them, this wouldn't have been possible and I'm proud of them. And George did an amazing job today, too."
It was the Briton's best result of the season. However, he trails his fifth-placed teammate Russell (143) by 16 points and 2021 championship winner Max Verstappen by a whopping 96, with ten races to go.