Hamilton came third behind race winner Max Verstappen, his rival from 2021, and Carlos Sainz.

The trio chatted away after getting weighed…

Hamilton to Verstappen: “I couldn’t see you after a while. I was like: ‘where is he?’

“I lost some time to you.”

Sainz: “There is a bump there that I was scared of all weekend.”

Hamilton: “Sheesh.”

Verstappen to Sainz: “Was this the last lap?”

Sainz: “Second-to-last.

“The tyres get so warm.”

Verstappen to Sainz: “Yeah, well, you were constantly so close to me.”

Sky Sports' Ted Kravitz later said: "My suspicions were arisen that the cool down room is played back on a time delay so that they can mute the swearing. The cool down room suddenly ended then, live, I saw the drivers come onto the podium. I thought 'I know where the cool down room is because I took a podium here many moons ago!' 

"If you were wondering why the sound goes down, it is because they mute the swearing via a time delay!"

Hamilton later said to Sky about his second podium of the season: "It is different to a win but it feels as good as that, in the sense that this is where I got my first win.

"I’ve had a fourth and a third. A bit of consistency, finally.

"I know I can do more."