Lewis Hamilton admitted that he was "gutted" for Charles Leclerc after the Ferrari driver's crash from the lead of the French Grand Prix. It was the third time this season that the Monegasque has failed to finish a race while at the front, and the Mercedes driver had some advise for the Italian outfit.

Leclerc had closed the gap to Max Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship to 38 points, and was on course to further reduce the deficit. The Lap 18 mistake, however, saw the Monaco-born driver drop 63 points behind his title rival with 10 races remaining.

While the French GP crash was a driver error, most of the misfortune suffered by Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz has been due to Ferrari's poor reliability. There is no doubt that the Maranello-based team has produced a grid leading car in 2022, but it is fraught with issues mainly with the power unit.

Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc's car is taken away from the track after he crashed out while in the lead AFP / CHRISTOPHE SIMON

Leclerc and Sainz have suffered a combined eight DNFs this season owing to Ferrari's problems. It has also seen both drivers take grid penalties after going over the set number of engine components that can be used by each driver during the course of the campaign.

Hamilton lauded Leclerc and Sainz, while praising Ferrari's competitiveness this season. The Mercedes driver, who is yet to win this season, admits that it is difficult to be consistent even while having a race winning car.

The seven-time world champion, however, has backed Ferrari to continue battling and take the fight to Red Bull Racing. The Austrian team is now leading both the championships comfortably, and looks on course to complete a 2022 title double.

"It's been great to see the pace of the Ferrari this year," Hamilton said, as quoted on GP Fans. "I'm gutted for Charles, who's been doing a great job, as has Carlos."

Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton celebrated an unexpected third place AFP / Giuseppe CACACE

"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 heads down. Yeah, [there are] massive gaps [in the points], obviously pretty huge so that's pretty smooth sailing in that space generally," the Briton added.

"But a lot still can go wrong up ahead so I would just advise them just to continue to push."

Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc after his Ferrari broke down last Sunday when in the lead POOL via AFP / Manu Fernandez